Another Run of Events
by 0-mirage-0
Summary: An undercover mission has Roy's team playing house. With Ed in school and Roy acting father, as things become tricky, Ed struggles under pressure and bullying, while Roy comes to realize and embrace that his parental role might not be fake. -ParentalRoyEd- Completed Story.
1. Backtalk

Another Run of Events  
Chapter One  
_BackTalk_

- mirage –

* * *

Introduction:  
This is a multi-chapter completed story. Originally written in 2006 and posted in 2008, this enhanced version has been almost entirely rewritten for your entertainment. I hope you enjoy.

* * *

Hawkeye approached Mustang's office desk and dropped a fat manila folder. A few forms and the report from the North fluttered in the aftermath, but neither moved. "We've had another run of events sir."

Roy casually raised his gaze, and covered the receiver with mild irritation. "I am on the phone."

Hawkeye's expression was stoic and blank, the expression she'd learned to craft as a female soldier outnumbered by the opposite gender. It was a futile, albeit respectable; attempt to help remove sexuality and the attraction born simply from the lift in the front of her uniform and the seat of her pants. Although Roy Mustang to her knowledge didn't look, because he was polite, she had known him far too long and knew him far too well to find this mock threat, or any of his other threats, remotely threatening.

"I can wait sir," Hawkeye said plainly.

Roy returned his attention to the phone. "It's been a car accident?" he asked. The second lieutenant was on the line and the man was dreadfully unclear.

Today was like any other day, an early rise, not so different reports, and not so different mishaps. Reports had continuously been coming in, and all of them were the thin kind clad in light blue folders with yellow tabs signaling they were not urgent. The remaining shipment of new recruits for Central had finished arriving, and they were now working on getting all the paperwork settled. Central's more experienced ground troops, those which made the compound magnificently developed and sound, were being shipped about the country to improve training in remote locations and stranding the entire first floor with _newbies_.

"Havoc you're not making any sense," Roy said, interrupting what he was tempted to call a tangent. "How was the horse involved?" He took the corner of Hawkeye's delivered folder and yanked it over the Northern report he was trying to work on. Her folder was the bulkiest item on his desk, and it angered him. He flipped back the cover with disgust just as Havoc's story reached its climax. "Oh," Roy said, fighting a heavy sigh. "It was a_ horse_ accident."

Havoc was illustrating the situation with exaggerated tones and slang. The main variables seemed to be Falman, a horse, and a poorly made fence. "Broken leg," Roy repeated. Hawkeye lifted an eyebrow to show her interest, and Roy tipped his chin from the receiver. "Horse accident," he mouthed. She looked sympathetic for a moment before casually abandoning that same concern and resuming her straight expression. Havoc was repeatedly using the expression _'off like a prom dress'_ when Roy felt he had heard enough. "Fine, fine issue the medical leave. Tell him to recover. I have to go." He brought his finger down on the highlighted sentence within the first paragraph of Hawkeye's report and gave her a questioning glance. She reached over and turned the page for him.

This was the fifth report he'd received outlining an unidentified alchemic substance turning up in a small well-to-do community in the East. It was a substance that was melting through their military base. It was a small outlook post manned with only a few solders and even less important materials. There was absolutely nothing of military value in inventory, so the fact their meager dozen boxes of unclassified documents, and basic office furniture may be in jeopardy was not cause for the attention this case was building. It was the fact no alarms had been tripped or suspects apprehended during the course of, what seemed more fitting to label as, acts of vandalism.

Upon the second report Mustang received a memo, including the names of several higher ups of who he would prefer not send him memos, with the single sentence: _What are we doing about this Mustang? _As if it were in fact his outpost and he had been turning a blind neglectful eye to the location, rather than sending the single scout he had. The man was a veteran and should have been capable of overcoming an opponent had one been found.

"Havoc," Roy interrupted what was becoming Havoc's lengthy description of the horse trainer. Her long legs, long hair, soft skin, bright lips, round eyes, big breasts, and amazing ass. Havoc said the plump to her lips was enough to reflect the sun. That her eyes were in a constant state of half mass allure, and, whenever standing close to her, the scent of buttercups was unmistakable. "Havoc." Roy was by nature a womanizer, but Havoc's hideously engrossed descriptions over the crackled phone line was very different from standing face to face with a blonde who smelled like a summer flower. _It was time to end this._ Roy hung up the phone without warning and turned all attention to Hawkeye. "There's been another attack?"

"Not a single clue left behind," Hawkeye said flatly.

"This is a joke." Roy lifted the report and snapped it open. "Do you understand how stupid this is making us look Hawkeye?" He yanked pages up scanning over the highlighted portions. "Like we can't even protect our base. One small insignificant base out in the sticks."

"It's actually a wealthy city," Hawkeye corrected. Roy gave this comment a cold glare, but she was not intimidated. "I included a blueprint," Hawkeye said. She took the report and unrolled the delicate paper. Appendix D and E showed the zoning for the geographic location about their base. "It's all residential sir." Hawkeye indicated the mass of light blue classifying the area around the red military perimeter. "Small community, with a lot of money."

"Looks kind of like my home town." Roy cast his eyes about the plethora of blue squares peppering all sides of the red block which was their base. It was an expensive plot of land, mainly all residential with some light industrial, but not enough to suggest any type of urbanization or even heavy shopping. "What is this?" he asked, dropping his finger onto the large rectangle sitting in the topographical setting with all the inconspicuous insignificance of Lab five.

"A school," Hawkeye said. "A very large campus. A private school, very expensive, and very exclusive. The children of political parties, and the higher financial brackets."

"A school, huh." Roy considered the surrounding buildings which were all a fraction of the size. "There's nothing much else in this town other than the school." He dropped the report to his desk and leaned back in his chair. "That's very odd." Hawkeye was silent. "It doesn't make sense." The most puzzling component to the assault on their base was the lack of any connection between the locations and methods in which it was being targeted. There was no specific location, inside or out, that was consistently focused upon the way a thief would focus on a vault. To make matters more complicated, all of the rooms which had been targeted had nothing of value inside them, making the attacks look almost random. _So he had to ask_. "What type of thief targets an empty bank?"

"Sir?" Hawkeye asked with confusion.

"Since the school is the largest focus of the town, you don't think the perpetrator could be a child, do you?" he asked, but even as he posed the question he was drawing to the conclusion that was exactly what she was suggesting. Yes, that is what she suspected. He could see her train of thought sitting delicately over the blueprints the way the sheet lay over his desk. It was perhaps the least obvious conclusion, but also a plausible one. A small crafty child. "Did Edward inspire this Hawkeye?" he teased.

"I am trying to be serious sir."

"Yes I know." Mustang smiled, and flicked the corner of the folder. "This is a rather extensive report Hawkeye. What exactly are you planning here?" He was becoming excited. Buried within these pages was Hawkeye at her best. The dedicated soldier driven toward perfection. There was something remarkable about placing a skilled professional and loyal companion together in the same location. She had proven to be a continuous surprise that did not disappoint. She was an excellent worker, close friend, and smart? _Was she ever._

"It makes sense that the perpetrator could in fact be one of the students. They rang in age from eleven to twenty three. All of them honor students, excelling in several fields. Medical, engineering, energy power generation, biochemical science, and literature." Hawkeye gestured to the pages she had compiled. "Extensive knowledge in just a few of these fields could create some of what we're seeing. It's possible with this high an IQ basic alchemy has been learned, and this substance sir, is reported to be made of mainly salts."

"Salts?" Roy sat up and lifted the blueprint again. The red outline of their base was simple, but its simplistic design made it strong. "I have it listed as melting a few walls Hawkeye," he said, skeptical this analysis could be correct. _Salt just didn't melt walls._

"That's exactly why I think there is something we're not seeing," Hawkeye said. "I have prepared a POA sir." She lifted the hand she'd kept consistently at attention and extended a second manila folder.

A POA: Plan Of Action. She had made a mission, and was handing him a designed solution meant to be carried from start to finish. All he'd have to do was approve it.

Roy hesitated for just a moment, before taking the folder and turning back the cover. She had created a detailed table of contents, diagrams illustrating the more elaborate parts, graphed the tactical maneuvers, and created a backup tactical maneuver, and small diskette of records needed for it. Hawkeye began speaking immediately, illustrating her plan as Mustang read them. "We place two agents undercover in the school, and two in the community. We'll wormhole our way through this, and investigate it from the inside out."

"Impressive," Mustang said, examining the graphics of her plan. She had four positions lined up and had already run it through clearance for success probability. Implanting would be easy, and if need be, effective this weekend. "Who are you sending?" he asked, and she opened her mouth to speak before he cut her off. "I want to keep this internal of course," he warned. He did not want men he didn't trust in his missions. He never had. They were his crew and he was the captain, and he liked all things operating through them and himself. It was his ship mastered meticulously and which never floundered.

"I knew you would sir." Hawkeye smiled. "That is why I would like to station Havoc at the school, as a gym teacher. Fuery in town within the local market, Falman at a residential house, and Edward in the school."

"Fullmetal?" Mustang cocked an eyebrow, glancing again at the large blue square illustrating the school.

"It's practically flawless with him sir. No one would suspect," Hawkeye said, and Mustang heard a bit of excitement in her voice. How perfect it would be, how easy Fullmetal would work, how he would complete her plan. It was amazing, she couldn't wait.

"Fullmetal is in the west Hawkeye._ Researching_." Mustang sat back with a sigh. He considered the outlines, job descriptions, and false background she had prepared. "He can't simply be uprooted and shoved into an undercover operation." He returned his gaze to her. "And what's more he's not going to_ want _to be uprooted and shoved into an undercover operation. I just had him here whining at my base a few weeks ago. I don't want to repeat the pleasant and familiar experience."

Hawkeye ignored Mustang's sarcasm. "If he is in deed conducting a nation wide search on alchemy sir, then I think an unprecedented alchemic substance is right up his alley," Hawkeye said, with a bit of humor. Mustang was silent._ Yes, yes it was._ "Falman will of course act as his father so there is no suspicion."

"Falman just broke his leg and suffered a concussion. He's further North with Havoc and can't be moved," Mustang said, handing back the report. Hawkeye made the slightest frown with this flaw. "But I like this. I like this very much." Mustang smiled, complementing her plainly. It was simple, but meaningful and he did not do it often. "Put this into works immediately. Phone Havoc and tell him to get down here, and tell Fullmetal the same. If he gives you any problems tell him he'll be in my office being lectured until he can legally drink if he disobeys."

"Sir?" Hawkeye frowned, confused how they would execute a plan with a vital member of that plan missing.

"Simply send Breda too, and make Havoc the father," Mustang said happily. It felt as if a piece had just slipped easily into place after he had anticipated needing a much greater shove.

"Sir," Hawkeye said, lacing this word with a scolding as if he'd suggested something impractical. Mustang lifted his eyebrows inquisitively but Hawkeye remained silent and gave him nothing more then her small trademark frown which pinched her brow and made a tiny pocket. She rarely gave him this tone. It was that of a patient warning. Like a mother to a child she saw carrying out a familiar act of disobedience. "How sir?" Hawkeye asked, breaking their silence. Mustang kept his eyebrows raised with confusion. "Sir, how can I make Havoc the father? He's too young, it's..." Hawkeye trailed off, and Mustang realized she was right. Havoc wasn't just acting, he would have had to actually impregnate Fullmetal's fictitious mother and help raise the boy. Being so young, he couldn't have done so currently unless he did so illegally. "Even if we fake that he's older. It would be ridiculous," Hawkeye said. "Jean barely looks his age now."

Mustang gave a heavy sigh and rolled the idea about in his head like a marble. He touched upon each of his men all of which were too young. Breda was the closest in age but even he fell a few years too short.

"Breda is the next closest in age but still too young," Hawkeye said, as though picking Mustang's brain. Mustang released another sigh, heavier this time. "Of course," Hawkeye said slowly, as though hesitant to voice her thought. Mustang recognized this tone as well, it came when she'd come to a realization she wasn't sure he'd agree with.

"Spit it out. I think this is an excellent plan. It's practically flawless, I already told you good work Hawkeye," Mustang said impatiently._ He wanted to cross the finish line._

"Unless you do it sir," Hawkeye said. Mustang froze. _Him?_ On the field? In a residential house? "We could easily lie and move your age to say, thirty four." If he didn't know her well he'd be offended. Offended and appalled she thought he could look thirty-four, but that was not what she was implying and Mustang frowned mulling over this. If he didn't take it, then his mission would require outside help, and that he did not want. "Fine." Mustang groaned and brought his hand down slowly to his desk.

He took his decision like a shot of alcohol and threw it to the back of his mouth and forgot it. He knew it would take effect slow at first and than all at once snowball into the weekend. He wanted this case stopped. He wanted the perpetrator captured, and he wanted to know what this substance was. If he had to go into the field and play house a bit he could do it. He was a soldier, and also a man, and he could take it. He would master it and conduct this mission from his own false house. It would be a ballet and the town would be their stage. It would be flawless, and with the discovery of this new material he would be promoted.

They would all be promoted.

* * *

Ed took one look at Hawkeye's report and abandoned his slouched position on Mustang's couch. "Salts?" Ed asked, directing his question to the room. "Salts? That's got to be wrong. Who melts a brick wall with salts?" Ed lowered Hawkeye's report with a skeptical grunt. "Colonel whoever you have reporting to you needs to be fired." Ed tossed the report back to the coffee table before cockily linking his hands behind his head and resuming his slouch.

Hawkeye did not respond to this. Mustang had glanced to her when Ed tossed her impressive report aside as if exhausted by it, but she kept her face straight. Hawkeye did not become irritated at Ed the way Mustang found himself becoming irritated. Instead she slipped easily into a state of patient understanding, as if somehow there was method to Edward's obnoxious and seemingly random childish antics.

"Edward, I did that report," Hawkeye said calmly.

Ed immediately averted his eyes and looked appropriately embarrassed. "Did I say fired?" Ed teased, managing a coy smile.

Hawkeye returned the smile warmly. "It really is a salt." She was moving back to business and Ed looked relieved and appreciative of her graceful forgiveness. Mustang sat at his desk with his head in his hand thinking, yet again, _my god_, they must have invented foot-in-mouth for Edward Elric. "It's been analyzed by our top labs. Four of our top labs."

"Don't question women Fullmetal," Mustang said flatly. This was the best advice he could give. "It will only work against you." He stood and left his desk. He had no where to walk to, and leaned against the front and surveyed his men. Havoc was still reading, but Fuery was holding his completed packet and awaiting orders. "Fuery, what do you think?"

"Can we really pull this off?" Fuery asked skeptically. "I mean, the town won't notice the addition of so many new people all at once?"

"That's a good point," Havoc said, forcing Hawkeye's Appendix C to the side as if the paper needed to be awkwardly twisted from its staple to be understood.

"In fact they won't," Hawkeye said confidently. "The school necessitates that a family member, or family, also reside in town. So Fullmetal's enrollment and the colonel's sudden appearance won't bat a single eye. Also, because of this fact, families move in and out in four year increments or less. Several false student aliases have also been introduced allowing Fuery to be a family member of one of them, and Havoc you being an employee of the school shouldn't arise any suspicion."

"I want credit for some of this when we find out what it is," Ed said, raising a lazy hand as though prepared to take an oath. "I think that's fair." Ed gave them all a toothy grin. "Since I have the worst roll."

"_You have the worse roll?_" Havoc asked, with mock outrage which wasn't entirely mock. "I have to be at work at seven." Havoc dropped his packet to his lap with disgust.

"Havoc you're supposed to be at work at seven now," Mustang scolded. Havoc had never shown up earlier than twenty after a day in his life. "Of course, not every job can be as comfortable as the military," Mustang teased. Ed gave an exaggerated sniff of sarcasm. "And because we're all involved we'll all share equal credit." Mustang returned to his desk and sat down. "Falman and Breda will also be in on this since, of course, I plan on moving to the top with my team," Mustang paused and glanced about the room. His followers found this pleasing and were listening intently with expressions of satisfaction. "So for the time being, everyone go home and pack." Mustang lifted a hand and pointed toward the door before relocating a stern finger to members he would identify as 'culprits': _Havac and Fullmetal._ "But make sure you fully understand the draw backs which are not optional," he said firmly.

"Draw backs?" Havoc asked slowly.

Mustang narrowed his eyes. "Yes." He was expecting a fight, and he was ready to win. "Havoc you can not date, Fuery no pets, and Fullmetal your brother is staying in Central." He quickly removed all three privileges and as he expected three pairs of eyes widened in the breath directly before the moment where argument bloomed. "Now, all three of you remove yourselves from my office!" Mustang pointed to the door. He was aware of what was coming. That they were brainwashed and thought they needed these things to live. That they'd say they were crucial, normal, and even relevant to the mission, but that was a lie. They weren't crucial they would be detrimental distractions. Every time Fuery brought some thing into the office, everyone stopped work to pet it, to feed it, to ask its name and other ridiculousness. Havoc became star struck and equally depressed depending on the status of his dating, and Fullmetal's brother was a massive suit of clanking armor! "I don't want to hear one thing about it!" Mustang snapped, when Ed's mouth was opening and Havoc lifted his hands like a homeless beggar. "One word and I'll make whoever argues with me go undercover as a woman." Mustang narrowed his eyes. "And don't think I won't do it," he warned. "I am giving up things as well." This was true, and he was leaving his mammoth bed of which he had a passionate love affair with. He offered only the finest sheets and in turn she cradled him until the sun rose. If he was leaving town to suffer from his bed in a crappy home-away-from-home cramped with Fullmetal's presence, than dammit, they were all going to suffer.

* * *

Mustang paid the rest stop cashier for his juice and small package of muffins. "Let's go," he said, glancing to his right before looking up when he learned he was alone. In the small convenient store he turned around from the single check-out counter and considered the meager three shelves. "Fullmetal?" He was at a loss as to where Ed could have gone.

"I'll come when I am ready," Ed snapped, from somewhere between either the first and second, or second and third shelf. With their height he was entirely hidden and Mustang closed his eyes and tried to count the way Hawkeye had suggested.

'You were his age once too,' Hawkeye said, when hours ago Mustang climbed into the rented SUV they were to use as their 'family' car. That was how she began her directions. Mustang knew then she was worried about them spending so much time in each others company. That she worried about him playing the role of the 'loving' father, and Ed the 'obedient' child. It was so ridiculously warped and disturbingly twisted he didn't know how they would succeed past their social façade but he didn't care as long as the social façade held. What Ed did in his personal time was the boy's business, and although Hawkeye worried her advice would not be enough to save him from the four hour ride of obnoxious monotony Edward was capable of, he was confident he would triumph over Edward's games because he was the colonel, and as the colonel was able to make many of the rules.

He set them quickly. Buckle up, no talking, feet on the floor, leave the window up, turn the music off, and it had only taken them two hours to reach this gas station. Aside from these commands Mustang was surprised he could lower his guard as much as he had because Ed had proven to be relatively quiet. He'd arrived on time in the parking lot behind their base with his brother and a duffle bag at the crack of dawn. The boys said their goodbyes quickly and then Ed was left behind in jeans and a hoodie discussing small tactics with the rest of them before they disbanded.

Hawkeye's plan had three separate cars traveling down. Havoc alone, Fuery and herself, and then of course Mustang. He was driving with Fullmetal because they had to live together and it was good for appearances. Just like Fullmetal not listening to anything he said in public was bad for appearances. And Fullmetal so far, this being their first public appearance, had not listened to one thing he said. Hawkeye's advice for the ride was to stay patient, her advice with regard to Edward was to be friendly._ No matter what_, she said.

"Get your _ass_ to this counter now," Mustang said, in a low furious voice. He took a step toward the three aisles to show his intention and Ed leaned out of the second to see him. The boy was holding a bag of chips looking somewhere between confusion and annoyance.

"What?" Ed asked, teetering on skepticism Mustang really just said the word 'ass' in public and to his own 'son.'

"Don't make me repeat myself Ed," Mustang warned. He kept his irritated gaze fixed on Ed as the boy stomped out of the aisle, arms full of snacks, and dumped the landslide of sugar and fat to the counter. Ed had been struggling to hold everything because a bag of chips he'd selected was so full of air it looked ready to explode and was difficult to carry with the large bear claw, box of cookies, bag of candy, and bag of pretzels Ed had collected. The automail had helped, and Ed gave the cashier a sly chuckle when he slipped the bag of candy off the large screw in his wrist the way one lifts a bag from a hook.

Mustang found this obnoxious and watched the bear claw slide down the pretzels and landed near a row of cigarette lighters and gum before realizing Ed was looking at him. He returned the gaze and Ed gestured toward the mess he'd dumped. "You gonna pay for this?" Ed asked smugly.

Mustang gave Ed as dark a glare as he dared in public where it was unknown he was not the boy's father and in fact his far to be respected colonel. _Why the hell should he buy this garbage?_

Ed lifted a slow eyebrow as he read Mustang's meaning perfectly. Then Ed said it, hook, line, and sinker. "_Dad?_" Ed emphasized this word in a long patronizing sound. _Daaaaad?_

Mustang froze where he stood. It was as startling to hear that word fall from Edward's mouth as to hear a younger voice direct it at him. It had the effect of strong profanity and he was shocked Ed would start the mission outside the town, and felt under minded he wasn't prepared to handle it better! Quickly, and a bit nervously, he looked to the cashier. The fat man seemed indifferent, but Mustang felt branded a bad parent not buying his child food. He lowered his eyes to the mess of oily unhealthy useless items Ed had collected and considered saying it.

_I am not buying this crap._

All he had to do was say it, and didn't parents say that? His sister referred to many things her four year old had as 'crap,' but now in this time of need he couldn't remember if she did so to the youngsters face.

"I am hungry," Ed said, pushing the issue when Mustang's jaw tightened that fraction of an inch.

Mustang ripped his wallet back out. "Just get in the car," he said, voice dripping with irritation. Ed extended a hand for the shopping bag as the man rang up his prize, and left for the car as Mustang paid. It wasn't quick enough to beat the colonel and the moment they were outside Mustang released a fast annoyed breath and fixed Ed in a tight glare. "That was uncalled for," he scolded.

Ed crawled into the passenger side and sat down hugging his bag. "If I get to be a kid again, I no longer have to pay for my stuff," Ed said happily. Mustang considered the odd way Fullmetal used the word 'again,' as he slid his key into the transmission. "I think the army can put forth some funding for our undercover work Roy. Just file an expense report if a few snacks are making your almighty-colonel-wallet tight." Ed laughed at his own joke and settled down beaming with his treats. Mustang found this disturbing. The combination aside, all of it was poorly made unhealthy convenient store trash. While driving he watched Ed rip the top off his box of cookies, and, while smiling, began tossing them back as if they were potato chips.

Curious, Mustang reached for one, but Ed startled as severely as if Mustang were holding a knife. "Get out!" Ed cried, jerking the box out of reach. "This is my food old man!"

Mustang took to the recently opened bag of pretzels instead. "It's my money," he said. Ed watched Mustang fist a few pretzels with mounting annoyance. "If you want things so bad, go get a job," Mustang teased, eating with one hand and driving with the other.

Ed held his box of cookies with a scornful glare before using the box to indicate Mustang. "I am not looking forward to living with you Mustang.

"Yeah," Mustang snorted. "And I am so thrilled." He finished off the pretzels and glanced at Fullmetal. Ed was sitting in food, but the boy gave him an understanding nod with a bit of relief it was a mutual disgust.

"So just let me do what I am supposed to do, and stay out of my room, okay?" Ed asked, before looking over with a bit of alarm. "I get my own room, right?"

Mustang shot Ed a look of disappointed annoyance. Oh the stupidity of the question_. It could be no other way between them. What was this, a sleepover?_

"Of course."

"Good," Ed said, sounding pleased and reassured. Ed slouched down and propped his feet on the dash board before depositing the bag of pretzels in his lap. Wearing old jeans fraying at the bottom with slightly faded grass stained sneakers, Ed looked positively domestic.

Mustang considered these 'casual' clothes. Clothing he'd never seen Ed wear in the office. It hadn't occurred to him until now, although he knew it would be true, that Ed owned outfits aside from tight black leather ensembles, and that within them Ed would look more like a child to him than a soldier. Sitting now in a red sweatshirt bunched about the chicken thin legs Ed had sprayed outward about his food and collecting crumbs from Ed's chewing mouth, Mustang envision this version of Fullmetal as the Fullmetal that would have been. The boy Edward would be growing into if he hadn't committed mass taboo, lost an arm and a leg, and joined the military before knowing the true definition, and very wonderful meaning of words like: keg, clit, and, jimmy. This was Edward Elric growing up in a small town with a small family and being happy. Going to school, getting a job, meeting a local girl, and having some children in a life not built around slaughter, political treachery, and weapons. This was Edward untouched by everything that had slammed into his life like a fist to his jaw.

Mustang found himself startled, shaken, and almost taken back with this sudden double take on the boy who had been in front of him since day one. This perspective of a young Edward was not one Mustang liked to consider. Yes, he knew Edward was young. He heard the wise cracks and complaints from the other solders who felt it was uncomfortable, inappropriate, and hysterical Ed used the same locker room as they did and showered along side of them when his head was sometimes, as they put it, 'at the perfect height.' He was well aware when speaking to Ed if he started using 'that' tone, and pointing too often, that Hawkeye gave him 'the look' which indirectly meant she thought less force was needed in a situation where he was used to, and enjoyed, applying force.

In the passenger side Edward was eating and drinking happily, as the boy had been for most of the trip, and Mustang felt the startling and uneasy sense he could literally see Edward changing in his chair. For a good twenty minutes of the initial drive they had discussed military level tactical maneuvers and mission objectives for the next few days, and Edward had seemed like another soldier. Then after forty minutes Ed became inquisitive and played with the car's knobs, become slightly excited when they passed cows, and Mustang felt like he was saddled with a child.

It was always this back and forth. This extreme in exchange for another extreme. So this was the closest Mustang had come to catching a glimpse of his life if he too had not caught wind of the military, grown up someplace quiet, perhaps married her, and had a son. This was what his life might be like on the road, where his priorities consisted of fixing roofs and helping people with homework. It would not be all war and political competition. It would not be his seemingly endless struggle to the top seated along Edward's seemingly endless struggle to find peace for him and his brother.

"Roy?" Ed startled Mustang from his thoughts as thoroughly as if he pulled a plug. "What's wrong?" Ed asked, sounding annoyed.

Mustang glanced over quickly. Ed was frowning at him, chewing diligently with his legs blanketed in opened food. "What do you mean?" Mustang asked innocently.

"Why are you so quiet?" Ed asked, after swallowing most of the bulge in his face so he could speak. "And you were looking at me. I know you were. I am a foot away from you Roy, I know when you're looking at me," Ed said, lifting his tone with curiosity. "What is it?"

Mustang sighed, he couldn't share his musings. Sometimes you actually required twenty or so additional years before the contemplation of what life had done to you could take effect, but he had other topics they needed to discuss. "In order for this to work we need to cooperate a little more," he said kindly. His previous frustration had faded, and he had reached Hawkeye's level of patience for the time being.

"I_ am_ cooperating." Ed was instantly defensive. "I am in this car, _aren't I_? I brought clothes, left my brother, _didn't I_?" Ed asked, heavily insulted these feats were going ignored.

Mustang rolled his eyes. _Yes, Alphonse and the sorrows of leaving him behind._ "I mean between us Fullmetal," he said, looking over. Ed was back in his bag of chips crunching away. "I think we should try and relax a bit more. Think of this as a vacation," he said optimistically.

Ed shoved the chip bag to he floor and wiped his hands down the thighs of his jeans. "Can you pull over?"

"What?" Mustang asked with surprise. He felt slighted his honest attempt to bond hadn't even been noticed.

"Can you pull over?" Ed repeated. "I have to piss." Ed grasped the door handle and looked to Mustang expectantly.

"You couldn't have gone ten minutes ago?" Mustang slowed, slapping the blinker with irritation. "We just stopped!"

"I didn't have to go then!" Ed snapped. "Now are you gonna pull over? Cause I gotta go!"

Ed was grumbling under his breath when Mustang drove to the shoulder. The pavement became gravel and briefly the sound made Mustang remembered driving along the beach as he slowed the car. Not yet to a complete stop, Fullmetal hopped out. They were the only car on the desolate country road, and the sun was sinking toward the horizon when Ed ran out into the open field and stopped by a patch of wild flowers. Mustang watched Ed widen his stance and mess with his pants before the boy was pissing.

This was ridiculous. Mustang looked to the clock and became annoyed he could not even manage a four hour car ride without pit stops. He had never wanted to have children. This was a nuisance, they were a nuisance, and it was not only slowing him down, but costing him money. _Ridiculous. _

Ed jogged back to the car and climbed in happily. "_Okay?_" Mustang asked, emphasizing his agitation.

Ed slouched down in his seat and propped his feet back onto the dash board. With a casual wave forward Ed picked up the bag of pretzels and pushed a handful into his mouth. "Okay. Drive," Ed said, chewing.

* * *

In the dark, in the car, it was harder to read the map than he had anticipated, and Mustang wound up lost several times. Fortunately for him there were no witnesses because shortly after the sun went down Fullmetal fell asleep in his chair. Ed was old cold with his head slumped into his right shoulder, his legs curled into the cushion, and most of him still buried in snacks.

Mustang was left in silence. Alone his mind wandered more, and he added forty minutes of I-Am-Not-Sure-Where-I-Am before pulling into a decently sized brick house. It was fairly expensive and middle class, but not dramatically so. They wouldn't attract any attention. With a driveway on the left, the house had minimal landscaping, and a small front porch. Several inside lights had been left on for them, and Mustang looked over the exterior several times before turning to his professional backup.

Ed was snoring.

Mustang knocked the bag of pretzels aside and gave Ed's leg a nudge. "Fullmetal?" _He had half a mind to leave the boy in the car_. Mustang nudged a bit harder but Ed slept through his prodding without the slightest twitch. "Fine," Mustang snapped. He left the car and locked it behind him. He would admit he felt a bit nervous without any men in a strange community. In Central they were a phone call away, never more than twenty minutes, and then of course there was her. Out here they were infiltrating, and the peaceful setting was unsettling. You could not live on the battlefield and then transition to a suburban neighborhood easily. No matter what, and against your desires, you looked for danger, instinctively, you looked for war.

Roy unlocked the front door with his gun tucked under his thin sweater and jacket. Inside the house was modestly furnished and the heat was on and running. It was a basic town house design with the stairs immediately greeting you and the living room to your left. The kitchen was in the back and Mustang found this dressed with light green tiles, and white cabinets. It was stocked with dishes and provisions, but the refrigerator was empty. All in all Mustang considered the kitchen rather girly, and did not like it. The room was rectangular, dissected by a barstool counter which split the room from the kitchen to the breakfast area which held large sliding glass doors into the yard. These doors would be the worst for them without shades, and he made mental note to make sure guests stayed out of the kitchen at night when it would be so easy for the outside world to see in.

The remainder of the house was covered with a casual gray carpet which ran right up the stairs and throughout the upstairs hall. The design of the second floor was just as simple placing the full bath at the right and both bedrooms to the left. With disappointment Mustang found the bathroom imitating the kitchen's design, but it was stocked with soap, shaving crème, razors, and shampoo for them. Overall the amount of trim and soft white was reduced and this allowed it to be acceptable.

Both bedrooms were furnished with a bed and dresser. The larger Mustang found fashioned for him with fake pictures of a smiling blonde who was his false wife from which he had separated, and one of a young boy who he guessed was supposed to be Fullmetal at an age when the boy may have been tolerable and even nice. Fullmetal's room had several posters up. Three were music bands and one had Mustang laughing even as he shut the light off and left the tiny square room. The poster was a busty shot of a very pretty blonde wearing only the trademark H Havoc had scribbled near her cheek and one wet tee shirt. Mustang found this fantastic. She was hung on the back wall to be easily noticeable, so aside from the small twin bed, book bag, school books, and large shopping bag Mustang curiously peeked into; she was by far the best thing in the room.

After this welcomed laugh Mustang left to fetch his accomplice: the esteemed Fullmetal Alchemist who slept through the passenger side door opening and was drooling down his face.

"Fullmetal?" Mustang tried to keep his irritation from his voice. He gave Ed's shoulder a single jab and the boy's eyes cracked open in a groggy daze. "You're drooling." He pointed to the string of it and Ed wiped it away with his sleeve while sitting up. Ed inhaled slowly and stretched his flesh arm toward the dashboard while looking at the lit house.

"That our house?" Ed asked, bringing his flesh hand to his chest and scratching lazily. Mustang reached in and unbuckled the boy before lifting the bag of pretzels and chips off him. Ed ignored this and slid out once free of the food. _Mustang tossed it back in angrily._

"Let's move in," Mustang said, leaving the passenger side open and walking to the trunk. Ed followed slowly rubbing his face and waking gradually as if he had hibernated his way four hours from Central.

"Don't eat my food," Ed ordered, pulling his duffle from the trunk and waiting while Mustang retrieved his suitcase. Mustang found this order ridiculous and locked the trunk before walking toward the house with an outstretched arm pointing toward the open passenger side door. Ed rushed to it and grabbed his snacks. "Roy? Did you hear me!" Ed called, loading his arms before hurrying along. "They're mine and I want to eat them."

Mustang entered the tiny colonial and left up the stairs. A hot shower after the drive sounded wonderful.

Ed came in over the threshold and stopped with a bit of shock. "You…" Ed muttered, planted in the open doorway and staring inward as though intruding. "…you don't even want to investigate the downstairs first!"

Mustang tossed his suitcase onto his bed, and called out, "Already did!"

He could hear Fullmetal trekking through the downstairs before the front door slammed and Ed was taking the stairs two at a time. Mustang opened his provided dresser and began transferring clothing when Ed arrived in the upstairs hall. The boy went left first and then was backtracking after that wrong turn into the bathroom.

Ed found his bedroom and Mustang heard the snacks drop to the boy's feet before Ed was stomping forward and tearing paper off the wall. Mustang was laughing quietly with a bit of giddy excitement he remembered from his college days before Ed even made it to the provocative poster. Somehow now in the world of adults this seemed dangerously close to inappropriate Code of Conduct and Sexual Harassment Mumbo-Jumbo, he should not encourage as the boss, but he doubted Ed had linked it all together. _Young boys embarrassed by naked tits hardly ever realized they could report that they were._

Mustang was almost entirely unpacked when Ed appeared in his doorway holding up the shreds.

"I think this is yours," Ed said, looking annoyed and deterred they actually took the time and effort to play pranks while off base. "I thought I was working with adults on this mission." Mustang laughed, and Ed's expression tightened with annoyance. "Yes. _Ha. Ha."_ Ed dropped the shreds to his feet and left.

Mustang had brought minimal casual clothing for around the house, and professional but average quality dress apparel. Although they were supposed to be financially stable enough to afford sending Edward to this school, he had seen other soldiers go through a divorce and knew what it could do to your wallet. As a result he wanted to look appropriately respectable, but not so high class he was easily remembered or stood out. His dress would allow him to transition smoothly from the town, work, and school inconspicuously.

"Fullmetal!" Mustang called, unsure where Ed wandered to. "There should be an alarm clock in your room." Mustang pushed all of his socks into his top drawer waiting for a response. When he received none he continued. "Set it so you can be up at seven!" He slid his empty suitcase under his bed and left in search of the boy. Ed's bedroom door was closed and Mustang knocked politely before cracking the door. "Fullmetal?" In the middle of the boy's room was a pile of snacks. Dropped a foot away was a fully packed duffle bag, and on the bed, stomach down and sprawled out, Ed was dead asleep.

On top of the covers.

In his clothes.

Mustang frowned in disgust and added_ 'on top of the covers'_ and '_sleeping in clothes' _to his list of why he would never have children. This would be reason number two and three. Number one he'd already discovered and explored heavily with the boy and it was '_backtalk.'_

* * *

Thank you for reading the first chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! (Please leave a review if you can). My profile will contain a current log of my posting activity and upcoming stories if you like my work. Please feel free to check it out, I am honored you stopped to read, and hope I can keep you coming back for more. : )


	2. First Day On The Job

Another Run of Events  
Chapter Two  
_First Day On The Job_

- mirage -

Mustang's alarm went off dreadfully early at six thirty. Half asleep and furious he rolled over and shut it off. The foreign sound of a home telephone ringing woke him later at eight and he brought the receiver to his ear still half asleep and clearing his throat. "..ello?" he mumbled.

"Sir, you need to be up and getting ready," Hawkeye said. Mustang woke almost entirely with just the sound of her voice and bolted upright. "I am on my way down now, I'll be there tonight. I hope everything goes well."

"Of course." Mustang hung up and stumbled from bed. The flimsy mattress in this house was far from his modern queen size and it was thin and much lower to the ground. Expecting more space between mattress top and floor Mustang tripped and almost planted himself face first in the carpet before staggering down the hall and swinging in Ed's door. His weight was almost entirely on the doorknob as he tried to grasp the landslide of his mind. "Fullmetal?" he mumbled, clearing his throat. Ed was now on his back still fully clothed, and spread eagle with half his head hanging off the mattress.

Mustang ran a hand down his face and walked to the bed. "Fullmetal." He gave Ed's shoulder a shake and Ed groaned. The boy shoved at his hand before cracking an eye and jerking away from his touch with surprise.

"Colonel, what the hell?" Ed slurred, lifting his head and shoving Mustang a step away both offended and confused with what seemed a colonel-invasion to his Central dorm.

"You're going to be late for school. We're both supposed to be there at ten," Mustang said. Ed frowned deeply with these words as if they were nonsense and gave a slow thoughtless blink. "Fullmetal, we're going to be late," Mustang said, nearing a tone of agitated urgency. "Are you following me?" Mustang asked, unsure if Ed's drunken half asleep state could even compute language.

Ed's expression of severe disagreement reduced as memory of the mission returned. Ed gave a nod and rolled over pushing himself up. "Yeah…I gotcha," Ed groaned.

Mustang returned to the door. "Hurry up." Ed slid from the bed yawning and waving for Mustang to leave. "You have twenty minutes."

Mustang returned to his own room and chose a black sweater and expensive pair of jeans. Trying to stay casual he pulled out his good black shoes and decided dressed like this he implied he might need to be somewhere after enrollment at the school, but no where near as professional as an office.

In such a small bedroom Mustang's doorway was parallel his nightstand and headboard. On his nightstand was his clock, gun, toothbrush, and wallet. Half asleep and still half dressed he grabbed his toothbrush and looked up when there was movement in his peripheral.

Ed had entered the hall and was leaving the bathroom with a full blown yawn stretching his mouth. Eyes closed, Ed walked slowly scratching at his stomach in nothing but boxers. The automail arm, the leg, the ports, all of it was visible and Mustang froze. He felt assaulted with Ed's nearly undressed state and responded with a brief uncomfortable panic. It were as if he'd accidentally intruded in the boy's dorm. Never before had he seen the Fullmetal Alchemist so unclothed, and he found himself a bit mesmerized. The intense contrast between the metal limbs, which were twice the size of the flesh in girth, and the manner in which they locked into the flesh stumps, was intimidating. The connection did not look friendly. It was obvious Ed had not slid them on like metal clothing, and they were not overlapping the boy's limbs like a shield. The automail seemed to have merged as aggressively as if one had taken Edward's bleeding stump and automail limb in either hand and rammed them together. Crippling and dark colored scars laced the merger, and for the first time, Mustang associated the sound of Ed walking closer to that of Alphonse, than to that of a human. The metal clank of the step and small noise of the movement in metal joints, hinges, and relaxed fingers, sounded more like the metal brother than something that should be associated with the flesh brother.

Oblivious to Mustang, Ed returned to his bedroom with Mustang staring into the hall wondering if he had not seen war, and if he were not a soldier, if something as powerful as the damaging handicap of Edward's appendages, and the petite stature of the rest of him in comparison, would be incredibly disturbing to him.

Roy left for the bathroom, his mind on the soldiers who appeared before his desk the first week Edward was instated and ordered to shower after training. Before Roy had assumed all of their discomfort was due to Edward's age. _How comfortable were grown men and adolescence young soldiers showering with prepubescent children?_ He had never before considered the fact some of that discomfort would have resulted from simply looking at Edward up close. He had never before seen the boy in such detail, and had never imagined the magnitude of the injury. Fully clothed the automail was a formidable weapon, and to his knowledge Edward, being the stubborn and fat-headed boy he was, loved to use it to its full potential. Now he had to consider the fact his soldiers' complaints may have touched on other more intimate topics such as the ability to look at a mangled child.

While passing Edward's open bedroom door, Roy curiously looked inside. Ed was changing in front of his dresser and was wiggling into a tee shirt with the provided shopping bag at his feet. The change in distance, placing Ed fifteen feet away rather than six, did wonders and the scars seemed less intense.

"How much time?" Ed called.

Mustang startled and quickly entered the bathroom. "We need to be there at ten!" he yelled.

In the mirror Mustang looked like hell, and he was rubbing his face wondering how he was going to fix this with only two hours to adhere to his new parent façade when Ed appeared.

Fullmetal entered the bathroom doorway looking dreadfully annoyed and held up the shopping bag. "What the hell is this?" Ed asked. Mustang recognized this aggressive tone and casually filled his toothbrush with toothpaste before brushing. Ed was still in only his boxers and tee shirt, and lifted an eyebrow to indicate his irritation. "Roy," Ed said, a tone of warning in his voice. Ed reached into the shopping bag and extended a letter. "Is this a joke?"

Mustang took the paper while brushing his teeth. It was a letter from Hawkeye. A message of good luck, and not to be nervous ,blah blah blah, more girl crap, before instructions informing Ed inside the bag was his school issued clothing and books.

"School clothes," Mustang said, taking the brush from his mouth to speak only those two words. Ed snatched the letter back and dropped the shopping bag to the floor.

"I am not wearing them."

Mustang spit into the sink and rinsed his toothbrush. "What do you mean you're not wearing them?"

Ed reached into the bag and extended a print out.

"I don't want to see it. That was all in your packet for briefing," Mustang said, turning on the sink and rinsing his face.

"No it wasn't," Ed snapped. "There wasn't a thing in there about issued clothing." Mustang shut the sink off and chuckled down to the drain. _Hawkeye was a slick one. _"Roy." Ed was mad. Mustang dried his face and took the print out to appease the boy. Quickly he scanned the page, but there was nothing unusual about the school's uniform. "It's a dress shirt and slacks," he said simply, handing the paper back.

"I am not wearing briefs," Ed said, stepping up and pointing to the bottom paragraph. "I wear boxers. I'll wear what underwear I want, they can't tell me to wear them." Ed gave Mustang a look of deep insult, _as if this were crazy_, and left dragging the shopping bag back to his room.

Mustang sat his toothbrush on the side of the sink and followed reading through the wardrobe directions. Hawkeye had said the school was very preppy and Ed would have to wear a uniform and abide by, her words were, all procedures. Ed had been issued three short sleeve dress shirts with the school emblem on the chest pocket and three pairs of black slacks. A black tie was optional and mandatory only on a string of dates the sheet provided, but what was not optional included Ed's undergarments: a white wife beater and briefs to be worn every day.

Ed dragged the bag back to his room and stopped alongside the pile of snacks. "This." Ed indicated the wife beater he picked up off the floor. "This no prob, I can wear it." Ed stripped off his undershirt and slipped into the wife beater. Mustang kept his eyes from the boy's scars and on Ed's expression of irritation. "Blacks more my color Colonel, but I can do it. Briefs, no. It's my ass and I'll put what I want on it."

Ed stood defiantly in the tiny white tank hugging his slender but developing chest, and his light blue boxers puffing out about his frame.

Mustang didn't really see where the argument was. "Fullmetal, they want you to wear them." He decided to start stating the obvious. With a casual shrug he gestured toward the shopping bag with the print out. "That means you'll wear them."

"What!" Ed cried, eyebrows rising into his forehead with exaggerated shock.

Mustang folded the school's print out casually and tossed it to Ed's bed. "You'll wear them or I'll court martial you, it's already eight thirty." He left for the bathroom to take a shower.

"What!" Ed cried, stomping into the hall. "You can't court martial me over the underwear I won't wear!" Ed was furious.

"Yes, but I can over refusal to do your military duties," Mustang said, pausing outside the bathroom. Ed was standing in the middle of the hall with his hands balled into fists glaring. "Which for now is infiltrating the school like we said." Mustang lifted a hand and pointed a commanding finger at Ed's angry expression. "So put them on or I'll court martial you."

"Roy!"

Mustang shut the bathroom door and climbed into the shower. He was only fifteen minutes in, his hair washed and body scrubbed, when Ed appeared banging on the bathroom door.

"Roy! There is no food here!" Mustang groaned. "The fridge is empty!"

"Eat last night's leftovers!"

"I did!" Ed yelled. Mustang stepped out and wrapped a towel about his waist before opening the bathroom door.

"Fullmetal," he said, tone exhausted.

Ed stepped back waving the steam from his face. "And that's another thing, you need to call me by my name now," Ed said. "You can't call me by my state name." Ed followed Mustang to his bedroom. "No more Fullmetal this and that," Ed said, taking hold of Mustang's bedroom doorknob and backing himself out to shut it. "You need to call me Edward! Or they're going to know!" Ed yelled from the hall. Mustang dried himself and pulled boxers on while chuckling. If left alone it seemed possible for Ed to agitate himself with no help.

"I will Fullmetal!" Mustang pulled on an undershirt.

"Well you're not doing it!"

"We're not in public, are we!" Mustang hopped into his pants before opening the door. Ed was glaring at him, looking non to impressed as he stood there doing up his fly. "When we're in public rest assured I will call you by your first name, Edward." Mustang offered a smile and Ed relaxed the slightest bit. The irritation pinching Ed's lips into a thin line reduced, but he retained his skeptical angry glare. "Is that the form you would like? Would you prefer Ed?"

"Ed's fine."

"Eddie?"

"No."

"Edwardo?"

"No."

"Edwa-"

"Stop," Ed snapped, looking disturbed. Mustang laughed silently and began fastening his belt while sweeping Ed with his eyes. Ed was dressed for school in the issued dress shirt which fit the boy well. It seemed made for the size of Ed's body and flattered his chest with his flesh arm comfortable in the sleeve and the automail slightly tight. Ed's black pants also hung on him well, and Mustang mentally complimented Hawkeye for being so spot on with her sizes. In the note she had left him, which Ed was not to read, she had assured him all the right sizes were provided, and as a result Ed fit his clothes well and although he now looked younger and smaller, he looked appropriately fifteen. "You look..." Mustang trailed off, considering what would be acceptable. "Intelligent."

"Thanks." Ed offered a tiny smile. Ed looked a bit embarrassed with unprompted praise, but also, undeniably pleased with it. "You clean up nicely yourself." Ed gestured to Mustang's dark jeans and waiting sweater. Mustang tugged his sweater on and began tucking his wallet into his back pocket. "I'll be in the car since there is nothing to eat here," Ed said, turning to go. Mustang gave this a nod before noticing Ed's pace. It was quick and deliberate. _Suspiciously_ quick and deliberate.

"Wait!" Mustang called. Ed stopped and turned around. "How do I know you're wearing the briefs?" Mustang asked, narrowing a scolding expression. Ed had an innocently inquisitive lift of his eyebrows happening once he was ordered to stop, as if to say _who me? Surely you don't suspect me_. However, with mention of the briefs Ed immediately became disgusted and scrunched up his nose.

"_I am,_" Ed said angrily.

Mustang beckoned Ed back towards his room. He knew Fullmetal well, and if there was one thing Fullmetal was, it was stubborn. This level of obedience was unbefitting of the boy. "Show me," he said casually.

Ed was in route until this order, and then he stopped dead and took a fast step back. "What!"

"Show me now," Mustang repeated with exhaustion. He opened his night stand drawer and grabbed his keys with Ed staring at him in aghast silence. "Fullmetal, I am not playing around," he snapped, when Ed seemed as if he were teetering between reluctance and flat out refusal. With his tone Ed lifted up the front of his dress shirt and easily slid his fingers in along his flat stomach to pull up a white band. "Don't play with me Fullmetal," Mustang said angrily. Ed dropped his shirt glaring. "That doesn't mean anything. You could be wearing anything with a white band."

"So what!" Ed snapped.

"_Fullmetal!_" Mustang raised his voice slightly and Ed stiffened. The sound of his baritone voice in the quiet domestic setting was more intimidating that it was in the office. Ed's shoulders tightened up with apprehension and without the bulky red coat Mustang watched this happen for the first time. Ed was furious and was breathing quickly with a low blush growing in his cheeks. "You're going to be thrown from the school and blow our entire cover if we don't get you in right," Mustang scolded. "Now show me your underwear dammit, you're making a big deal out of nothing." Mustang tried to force patience and friendliness in his words, but Ed didn't like them. Ed tightened his expression so it seemed his nose gained a gravitational pull sucking in the rest of his features. Wearing this, the expression of one eating extremely sour food, Ed turned his back to Mustang and began opening his pants. "No!" Mustang snapped. He racked a hand through his hair with frustration. "I don't want to see the white back of anything either."

"Well _what_ do you _want!_" Ed yelled, turning back around. "This is _ridiculous_ Roy! I shouldn't have to wear these clothes to beginwith! I am _cooperating_ with the mission!" Ed was annunciating his words with extreme agitation, as if he were trying to vent his frustration by spitting them into the hall. "You can't court martial me for that!"

"Don't think I am bluffing either," Mustang said, lifting a finger and pointing at the boy. Ed looked nervous with the pointing. Hawkeye said it was excessive, but Mustang enjoyed the change it caused in Ed's behavior. "Now open your fly and show me."

"No freakin' way," Ed whispered, stepping back again.

"I am getting my gun."

Ed panicked. "I am not just opening my fly! I'll show someone _else! _I don't wantto show _you!_" Fullmetal followed Mustang the few steps it took for Mustang to reach his night stand. He grabbed his weapon holster from where he'd tossed it onto the bed and Ed became louder. "Roy! I am serious!" Ed yelled, keeping a safe distance.

Roy popped the cartridge from the bottom of the weapon and checked it before slapping it back in. "Will you show Havoc?" he asked, looking up. Ed was incredibly uneasy and thoughtfully glanced to the side in a moment of hesitation before nodding. "You'll show him?" Mustang asked skeptically. Ed nodded with more intensity. "Good." Mustang pointed toward Ed's bedroom. "Get your book bag. He should be here any minute." Ed left stomping and Mustang made a show out of cocking his weapon.

"Havoc's coming here!" Ed called, lugging his book bag from his room with disgust and stomping down the stairs. Ed let the sack drag behind him and Mustang heard it smack into each step. He did his best to ignore this and followed Ed while tucking his gun into the back of his pants. _He was preying there was coffee in the kitchen._

"We were supposed to pick him up, but by now Hawkeye's called him, realized we're late and is sending him over." Mustang went directly to the kitchen and began hunting through the empty cabinets. He ignored Ed who stopped dead center in the living room with his hands balled into aggressive fists on either side of him.

"I told you there is nothing to eat!" Ed yelled. The door bell rang and Ed answered it.

"I am not looking for food I am looking for coffee!" Mustang hated the idea he might not get coffee. Waist deep in a low cabinet he heard Ed greet Havoc, and Havoc sounded unusually chipper at this hour.

"Good morning guys," Havoc said, grinning in his gym clothes. Havoc was undercover in a gray tee shirt and blue windbreaker with matching pants. The entire ensemble was complete only with the black running sneakers and whistle. _Yes, they had even remembered the whistle. _Ludicrous.

Mustang fled the kitchen and entered the living room pointing at Havoc. "Now show him Fullmetal," he ordered. Ed broke out in a hysterical blush of mortification. "I want this to…" Mustang trailed off on sight of Havoc's coffee cup. He abandoned his anger, his motivation, and all purpose for three quick steps toward Havoc, the cup, and then he seized it.

"You should have asked me to pick you up some," Havoc said, sounding more confused than annoyed when Mustang stole his Styrofoam cup and took a long savoring sip.

The living room fell silent while Mustang took three gratifying swallows with a smile too bight and too wide for such a morning hour. Life was right again. _It was all going to be okay._

"How was your drive?" Havoc asked, casually breaking into conversation.

Mustang ignored this and returned to his previous state. "Now show him Fullmetal," he said gesturing to Havoc with his free hand.

Ed bristled so intently his shoulders picked up like an offended cat. "Okay! Just!...Back up or something!" Ed gave Mustang's hip a shove. "Go in the other room or something!"

"You're not leaving my sight," Mustang snapped jabbing an angry finger into Ed's face. Did Ed really think he was so new to this game he'd leave the room so they could whisper to one another or, through elaborate facial expressions, carry on a detailed conversation in which Havoc learned he should not report accurately in order to _'cut a break' _as was the soldier term.

Havoc glanced between Mustang and Ed with a growing level of confused discomfort, before Ed took a few steps from them. "Get behind me Mustang! I am serious! If you're staying in the room I want you somewhere I can't see you!"

Mustang obliged with a heavy sigh and restrained roll of the eyes. _Children and their retardedness_. Then Ed was opening his pants with Havoc looking surprised, but not startled, and then suddenly Ed was doing them back up just as fast. Through the entire event Ed was staring intently into Havoc's eyes and Mustang was growing annoyed.

"Ed." Mustang stepped forward and severed the eye contact with a wave of his hand. He swiped his palm down inches from Ed's face as if he were chopping the connection with Havoc as thoroughly as an axe into a log. "Now Havoc, tell me. What underwear was he wearing?"

Havoc hiked his eyebrows. "Sir?"

"Boxers or briefs?" Mustang asked, voice firm but flat. He wasn't going to make this circus any more elaborate with detailed questions and raised tone of voice.

"Boxers sir." Havoc was too dense to answer with anything but honestly under such foreign and awkward signaling. Ed tipped his head back with a silent groan the moment this was said. "But I think he always has. Ed, weren't you always a boxer man?" Havoc asked, with a carefree smile.

"Jean, you're an idiot!" Ed snapped, slapping himself in the face. "I was even giving you the eyes!"

"What eyes?" Havoc asked, with a brief laugh.

"Havoc while we're on this mission if you lie for him I'll court martial you," Mustang said, nipping this in the bud. "He has to follow orders, and that starts with his uniform. So while we're here," Mustang said, turning to Ed and giving him a strong scolding stare. "We'll wear briefs as we're supposed to."

Havoc broke a quick expression of sympathy and gave Ed another smile. "Sorry Ed." Havoc shrugged elaborately. "I am not looking to see a court marital. Guess you're going to have to tuck it in and wear 'em." Havoc began laughing at his own joke, but Ed did not find this funny.

Twenty minutes later

"You two have made me late on my first day," Havoc said miserably from the backseat of the car. Since they were all behind schedule they took the single 'family; car. "It looks so unprofessional, I could be fired for this" Mustang was driving with Ed in the passenger side. They had the back windows tinted as much as could be inconspicuous and Havoc was keeping a safe distance from them. "We're supposed to be there right now."

"Cry me a river," Fullmetal said sarcastically. Ed lifted his hand and tossed it back over his shoulder to wave off Havoc's griping when the school came into view.

The entrance drive was long, and set upon a small hill the impressive building looked nothing short of elegant. The main administration entrance was massive. Entirely brick with thick white trim it sat cradled in dark rich grass and well furnished landscaping. On several acres of land the remaining two halls framing the extending main entrance and administration doors gave the impression of excellence, and Ed's mouth was dipping open in shock.

"Holy shit, is that the school?" Ed asked, poking his finger to the window.

Havoc leaned forward from the back with eyes equally as wide. "It's huge!" Havoc exclaimed. "It looks like a political estate!"

Mustang ignored this. He had been to a few of the Generals' homes, had his own family estate, and luxurious exposure to museums, opera houses, and galleries to take away the shock that standard grunt soldiers, or Farm country taboo-committing children Alchemists, did not.

"Pick your jaws up, we're supposed to have seen it already," Mustang said, parking in the vacant handicap spot to save time. "Also we're all supposed to be able to afford entrance, so let's not act like the vagrant who snuck in the back." He killed the engine and turned to his team. Both practically had their faces to the window and Mustang cleared his throat for attention. "Now remember," he said, turning his gaze to Fullmetal.

"I know-I know Roy," Ed grumbled, quickly exiting the car.

Havoc stepped out and ran a hand through his hair before flashing Ed a grin. "This is the last time I get to know you here Ed. Good luck." Havoc extended a fist and Ed bumped it with his own.

Mustang hid his smile. It was not the first time he had seen Havoc do this, but it had certainly come after enough time. Mustang remembered when his youngest alchemist was not offered the casual and inviting gestures the soldiers shared between each other, and instead was revered with confusion, disinterest, or sour resentment. While much of this was lost on Ed, who, being so new to the military was consumed with memorizing his new job and struggling to conduct himself like an adult in a sea of adults, some of the negativity he understood, even if only in the most basic sense one can.

"I gotta run guys." Havoc said, throwing Mustang a fast solute, before jogging toward the building.

Ed watched Havoc leave with a pleased grin before looking to Mustang expectantly. Mustang responded to this with a heavy sigh. "Let's just get this over with," he said dully. He didn't want, and didn't think he could handle, any more obstacles. He'd been awake for only two hours, but he felt the weight of twenty. It was a day poorly planned with bad coffee, no breakfast, foreign clothing, foreign house, and his list had grown. Number four was now: Refusal to wear purchased clothing. AKA: briefs.

* * *

The school headmistress stood from her desk with a smile when Mustang entered her office with Ed at his side. The school was a mansion of shining floors, marble trim, and solid fine grained cherry on the walls. Mustang had expected it to be impressive, but this was rather intimidating. The school resembled more of a well crafted government building of offices rather than any educational institute he had been within, and the principal's office did not disappoint.

An elegant bookshelf was built into the wall behind the headmistress, and she extended a hand from behind a large mahogany desk before gesturing to the two finely tailored upholstery chairs facing it. "It is wonderful to be meeting you," she said, moving her gaze from Mustang to the small boy in the school's uniform. "Edward Elric."

Ed almost tripped with the sound of his name, but Mustang kept the immense surprise and alarm it caused him to hear this entirely hidden. _Edward's real name was not to be used in the mission._

"My name is Marianna Sallsbury, the Principal here at Workashire School," Marianna said brightly. "I know I've been speaking quite a bit to your father, so it is a real pleasure to finally be meeting you." She offered a bright smile instead of a formal handshake, but Ed didn't even notice. He was fighting off his frightened nonplussed expression while backing into the chair Marianna gestured he sit in. "Let me just say, on behalf of the school, welcome to you both," Marianna said. Her tone was the essence of etiquette and Mustang sat with a kind smile. He felt he had met her before. That she could have been the principal to any of the private schools he had visited as a boy.

Ms. Sallsbury was late forties, with a grey hint sneaking into her hair, but the rest of her was immaculate. Her collar was tight and high, her hair styled in a fashion current for fifteen years ago but still widely accepted. She addressed them like the captain on a ship who knew she was sole dictatorship without another voice to argue for miles of sea. Ms. Sallsbury had been at her post for a long time, she was comfortable with it, and possessed it well.

"Thank you," Mustang said gracefully. He glanced quickly at Ed, but the boy was cautiously silent.

"I was so very pleased to receive your transcript Edward. Your grades were very impressive." Ms. Sallsbury's body was a twig, but from the wiry frame came a potent unmistakable sense of strength.

Mustang glanced again to Ed when Ed was addressed, but the stiffness of dread which had appeared in Ed's frame when he heard his name spoken to him had not diminished. Mustang had never seen Ed more obedient than he was at this moment, and it would have pleased him in any other circumstance. Instead he found himself balancing the dance of conversation while searching his brain to explain how private mission information has seeped through.

"Don't be shy Edward," Marianna said, nearing a laugh with a bright smile.

Ed mustered an imitation quickly. "Thank you."

"Thank you ma'am," Marianna corrected. "I am sure you're aware of how high we pride our standards here at Workashire Edward, and Mr. Elric of course I know you're aware. You're letter of application came very highly recommended. Of course because you're new Edward we'll allow you some leniency, but don't think you can slack young man because we'll have none of that." Marianna gave her finger a playful shake and Ed watched it wag with a growing sense of irritation. Mustang saw it blooming in his peripheral, but knew from his experience teasing the boy just how long Ed could hide his anger before it exploded like a balloon filledto its limit.

"Rest assured we're happy to be here," Mustang said. "I've been told the school is magnificent." Marianna took this praise with a wider smile and the tension seeding between them eased. "I just hope that Edward can be properly stimulated and accommodated for." He let his voice carry his gratitude, but remained firm in his underlying meaning. It seemed obvious to him, had this been real, Ed should take all priority. His son would come first.

"Yes we've composed a schedule I believe you've already seen, but I have prepared it again for our meeting." Marianna slid a print out across the desk and Mustang took it before handing it to Fullmetal. He had reviewed what Hawkeye had prepared carefully, and since Ed was not aware his underwear would be intruded upon, Mustang was assuming Ed had not.

Ed was itching to see what was written the moment Marianna produced documentation and said it was for them.

"He's fitted with all the mandatory classes, as well as advanced placement math and science," Marianna said, looking pleased.

"Wonderful," Mustang said.

"This of course is also for you." Marianna provided a three page packet. "Just another overview of our code of conduct, principle standards, and of course, a reminder of the donation you've pledged." Marianna turned the pages slowly as she summarized them before offering a pen. Ed was readying his schedule, but snorted the moment he heard the word 'donation,' and it was not lost on any of them. Marianna looked at the petite blonde before her desk and lifted a single eyebrow in surprise.

"Edward we'll have someone show you to your classes and give you a tour so you get settled in," Marianna said. Mustang signed everything. "Your lunch is covered in your tuition, and you'll be required to have your gym things here by tomorrow. I will have your homeroom professor organize all class paperwork for you so you can bring it home tonight for review, does that sound all right?" Marianna asked kindly.

Mustang was silent, feeling the question was directed at Ed. Marianna was making an effort to include Ed in this process and he stared back at her in a moment of unsure silence before realizing she wanted him to answer. "Sounds fine," Ed said, tone a bit disinterested.

Marianna sat back with a smile. "Then can I answer any questions for either of you?"

Mustang looked to Ed curiously, but Ed shook his head.

"No, thank you so much for seeing us." Mustang extended his hand and Marianna shook it before shaking Fullmetal's when he offered his as well.

"No, thank you Mr. Elric." Marianna gave them a smile when they left for the door. "And Edward if you have any questions please don't hesitate to stop and see me."

"Thank you ma'am," Ed replied obediently. Mustang heard Ed's dormant irritation and found it amusing the way he found asking Ed to wait outside his office when he had nothing to do amusing.

They were told someone would arrive to show Ed to his classes, and so waited outside the principal's office. Once in the hall, Ed breathed a long sigh of relief and gave Mustang a smile. "Geez, who sat on a pole this morning," Ed teased.

"I think we did all right," Mustang said, and he was impressed with them.

"Are you kidding?" Ed gawked. "I am freaked out of my mind!" Ed said, keeping his voice down. "Roy, how did she know my name?" Ed asked, tone accusatory and annoyed their military intelligence was so unintelligent.

Mustang considered this. "I am not certain. Our cover story was and appears to be active, but your name seems to have penetrated."

Ed snorted with disgust. "Do you think someone will make the connection?" Ed asked nervously. Mustang pinched his lips and ran his eyes over Ed. Standing at his side Ed was short for his age, perhaps a bit underweight, had a large appetite, fat mouth, and fat head.

"No," Mustang said confidently. Ed simply looked too small and immature to be an alchemist. This was what he thought when he saw the boy arrive in Central, and for months this was what the other soldiers saw. Hawkeye was perhaps the only one to have ever looked at Ed as both the child he was, and the potential he possessed. After the very first time she met and spoke with Ed Roy had seen her smile in such a warm and tender way it seemed Edward took years off her, and for a moment, he could see the young girl he once knew. "No, I don't think so," Mustang said.

"Thank god," Ed said, resting a hand on his chest for a dramatic exhale.

From an adjoining hall a young girl appeared wearing the same school dress shirt Ed wore and a plaid skirt. She looked at them nervously before offering a quick smile. "Edward?" Her voice was meek, and Ed turned to her casually. He didn't see the short skirt, the tiny smile, the feminine face. He saw a student who just happened to be female.

"Yeah?" Ed asked.

Mustang took a discrete step back. He was curious to see Ed interact with another young person. He'd never seen it, and to his knowledge Edward knew only two people similar in age, his brother and his mechanic.

"I am here to show you around," the young girl said. "Are you new?"

Just when Mustang thought it seemed impossible for Ed's balls to have dropped with the boy looking at a _school girl_ as casually as he would a wall, Ed lit up and smiled.

"Yeah. Thanks, I just moved here." Ed disconnected himself from Mustang in three quick steps and sloppily waved his hand to the side in what Mustang had to interpret as either a wave goodbye or a wave to get lost.

Ed seemed comfortable about his peers and that was a good thing. This would make the mission that much more successful. Mustang departed, and at the end of the hall paused and looked back. The girl was leading Ed down the hall and Ed was making conversation at her side. She was responding warmly, although Mustang couldn't make out the conversation, and just after Ed leaned close to her for a few words causing her to blush, he lifted a hand behind his back and gave a thumbs up.

Mustang broke a laugh and left. With all well at the school, there was the new and pressing matter of how and why the school knew Ed's name.

* * *

Hawkeye let herself in to Mustang's mission residence and stopped dead when he greeted her with a flat, "It's about time you got here."

Holding a bag of groceries she gave him a confused look of mild irritation he would greet her in such a way, and shut the door.

" I was greeted by the principal this morning as Mr. Elric," Mustang said. He was seated on the single living room couch surrounded by print outs and blueprints.

"What?" Hawkeye was shocked.

"Edward Elric is now a member of that school."

Hawkeye looked horrified and Mustang felt relieved she had not in fact somehow given the school the boy's name. He felt relived her horrified response was on the same side as his horrified response.

"That's impossible; we had it all set up. You're last name was supposed to be an alias."

"I assumed so," Mustang said, holding up her POA. She glanced at it before dropping her shoulders with a mute sigh. She gave him a look when he tossed her well made plan into bed with someone else's mistake and left for the kitchen. Mustang hungrily watched her pass.

Hawkeye set the groceries on the counter and lifted the receiver of the single downstairs landline which was located traditionally on the kitchen wall. Mustang looked at the brown paper bag of food and it moved to priority one from priority two. He dropped her POA to the coffee table and went to the back.

"Havoc it's me," Hawkeye said, giving Mustang little more than a glance when he began unpacking the groceries. _Cheez-It crackers, pasta, ramen, chicken soup, juice, soda, ketchup, mustard, tuna fish, peanut butter, jelly_...Mustang gave up unpacking and opened the Cheez-It cracker box. Hawkeye was speaking quickly with her hand raised and a few fingers touching her temple. Over the years Mustang had come to identify this as _female stress_. Not work stress, or war stress, but a stress that Hawkeye seemed to have as a female. When she was in the trenches and she became stressed it came in her silence. When they were at work and she became stressed it came quickly into her work making her faster, more punctual, and more accurate than before. Yet, when it snuck up on her, when it infiltrated internally somehow, it caused this type of worrying he could not understand. It made it more valuable than she could imagine. To Mustang, Hawkeye's ability to read into a situation and worry in a way he could not, and for a reason he could not perceive, was like a supernatural power.

Hawkeye hung up the phone with an irritated breath after only four minutes of conversation.

"It's his fault?" Mustang asked casually.

"Somehow it is," Hawkeye said, sounding exhausted. "Jean mailed everything over to the school, so one can only imagine…" she trailed off and fell silent. Comfortably she adapted a sense of dormancy in which her only task was to look at Mustang. Visually she was absorbing him, and he knew this was her '_how are you_', this was her _'how are you holding up?'_With just her gaze she could ascertain information he could not, and sometimes, would not share. He was both appreciative and irked by this involuntary confession.

When he was younger, with a bit of pride and eagerness he had welcomed this from her, enjoying the challenge and appreciating her attention in a way he knew, even then, was conceded. It was only later it became obnoxious, and borderline embarrassing when she became so astute there was nothing he could hide from her. His own powerlessness and her accuracy became intimidating, and she forced him over the hurdle that made someone which almost seemed prying become comforting. Her ability to recognize his true intimate self with the ease of lifting a metaphorical blanket became their unspoken trust. The fact she could find him without a searching effort was something he understood he might never put into words. Between them this was how he was the colonel, and this was how she was the first Lieutenant.

"Everything is going fine," Mustang said. He answered the silent question trying to force a calm and reassuring tone when he felt slightly nervous. He wasn't entirely certain things were going fine, because he did not feel entirely certain this was how things were supposed to go.

"You look tired."

_He could hide nothing from her._ Mustang's expression tightened. _Even his own stupid emotions_. "We arrived late last night and were late again this morning." He gave her a shrug. "They didn't say anything about it, so I'll take that as a good sign. Also I haven't had any calls of concern or catastrophe so I have to assume the rest of them are doing well also."

Hawkeye didn't comment on this and it was confirmation enough. "How is Edward?"

Mustang gave a shrug to the sound of the front door opening and slamming. Ed came in noisily and wedged out of his sneakers before taking the stairs two at a time. Hawkeye indicated the foyer with a small gesture of her hand. "He hasn't said anything to anyone now that he's home." Her tone alone suggested there might be reason to worry Ed was acting reclusive. As if dragging the boy into the country and forcing him into a private school was normal, and no reason for odd behavior.

Mustang shrugged, dismissing any analysis of why Ed did what he did. "He also doesn't know where we are either."

Hawkeye found Mustang's statement of the obvious slightly amusing and returned to the groceries with a smile. Upstairs the sound of Ed walking was as clear as if the boy were stomping angrily. Mustang found this interesting. Living alone he was not used to the foreign sound of a someone upstairs who belonged in his house. It seemed Ed could not even be in another floor of their fake residents without adding to the entire equation in his own unique way. The steps were too light to be adult, but the sound was strong and demanding.

"Is he stomping?" Mustang asked, utterly baffled. Was Ed this determined to constantly be noticed and involved he would stomp?"You know I regret listening to you and having us drive down together." Mustang lowered his gaze from the ceiling and considered Hawkeye. She was smiling a bright but suppressed smile, as if trying to hide it when that was absolutely impossible. "Why are you stomping?" he asked flatly.

Hawkeye was placing groceries in the fridge and pointed briefly toward the front door without stopping her task. "He took off his shoes when he came in."

Mustang failed to see the significance of this. He ate a handful of Cheez-It crackers with a dull unimpressed expression and Hawkeye sensed the disconnect and elaborated. "He's recognized this as his home for now." Holding the open refrigerator door she gave a thoughtful sigh. "One person I would like to meet in my afterlife Colonel is his mother." Hawkeye continued unpacking groceries with a grace only women had. She unpacked like items together and organized even as she sat things on the counter. Mustang watched her push a can of peas towards a can of string beans. He found her comment perplexing. He had no response to such a notion. "I think it would be nice, and I think she would make great conversation," Hawkeye said casually, as if completing her thought aloud.

Mustang was entranced with this idea. With the prospect someone could have hopes to meet someone after they died, and of all people Fullmetal's mother. Not a great inventor, or a famous painter, but the mother of one small boy. _Hawkeye was amazing. _She sent him a smile when she reopened the fridge with Fullmetal coming down the stairs at what sounded like three at a time.

"Am I alone in this house!" Ed yelled, heading directly for the kitchen. "I am starving!" Ed had changed and looked comfortable in loose gray pants and a black tee shirt. With a wide grin he pulled the open refrigerator door further back from where it was shielding Hawkeye and gave her a small wave. "Fancy meeting you here," Ed teased, stepping back when Hawkeye finished sitting all condiments inside and disengaged from the fridge. "How are you?"

"Fine," Hawkeye said sweetly. She returned to the paper bag on the counter. "How are you Ed?"

"Hanging in there."

"How was your first day?" Hawkeye sounded remotely excited, and even eager to hear Ed's response, and this more than anything, gave Mustang the annoyed sensation they were all playing house and in fact no one was working at all.

"Weird," Ed said, glancing about the open refrigerator as he answered her. The shelves were filling up with newly purchased items and Ed reached in and grabbed a cheese stick from a package Hawkeye had set on the middle shelf. Ed used his automail to rip the package from the cheese, and it gave way into shreds as if Ed's hand were jagged blades. "The kids in my school are snobs, the teachers are worse, and no one has said anything about alchemy," Ed complained peeling the cheese stick like a banana. "It took me all day to figure that out." Ed tipped the cheese stick toward Mustang as if giving a toast. "You think my head is fat?" Ed asked, giving a irritated chuckle. "Spend two minutes in that place." Ed bit the cheese stick in half. "I have a ton of classes and a ton of homework I am not doing, so what does our plan say about that?" Ed finished the cheese stick in a second bite and returned to the refrigerator. Hawkeye was purchasing healthy items and Ed looked unimpressed with their supplies. Hawkeye's grocery bag was near empty and Ed went to it and lifted out an apple with a discouraged look before noticing the box of crackers she unpacked and set alongside him. Ed tossed the apple back into the bag and began opening the box of crackers.

"Is he supposed to do the homework?" Mustang asked. He had not read the POA as thoroughly as he was letting on.

Hawkeye caught the apple before it dunked back into the grocery bag. "We have a cover story," she said. She took the cracker box from Ed's hands and set the apple in the automail palm. Ed groaned down to the apple and looked over to Mustang for support, before noticing the Cheez-It box Mustang was eating out of.

Mustang casually took a few steps into the breakfast area of the kitchen in order to eat and stand. He didn't want to share. _The crackers were his._

"We'll get you out of homework for the first two weeks Ed," Hawkeye said, finishing the groceries. She sat the last item, a can of pickles, in the fridge and then casually leaned into the closed door as she spoke. This was the first time Mustang realized she was out of uniform the way he noticed other women who were not in uniform. With Hawkeye's words abandoning her standard reporting tone and becoming softer the way only Edward's presence invited, she began slipping subtly further from the presence of a soldier and closer toward the presence of a woman.

Outside of work she wore her hair down and it sat on the shoulders of her white dress shirt. The low, but still conservative, neckline was the first drastic change from the uniform. With skin visible below her neck and the natural curve of her body recognizable inside the flattering cotton Mustang felt as if he were staring into the past and seeing the young girl who used to flutter in and out of his master's home. Hawkeye was wearing a long jean skirt, and it took the painful military years off her, as if setting her free.

"Be prepared Ed, if anyone mentions this to you, our excuse is due to the devorce and some depression pills." Hawkeye was subtle with her female attributes, but elegant. She wore a single plain silver necklace, and that was enough.

Ed's expression slumped, but he gave an accepting sigh. "If it gets me out of that," Ed pointed toward the ceiling, "I am down with it." Ed stepped to Mustang's side and grabbed the Cheez-It box. "Will this take longerthan two weeks?" Mustang ignored first tug on the cracker box, and then repetitive tugging. He ignored this with a tight grip. _It was his._

"We don't want it to," Hawkeye said, sounding a bit offended with the idea the sum of their minds might require longer.

Ed was unwilling to let Mustang ignore his way out of sharing the crackers, and gave an unending yank until Mustang let the box go. _"Thank you," _Ed said sarcastically, lowering the box and digging his hand into the top.

"I just stopped by to bring you two some groceries, I have to go now," Hawkeye said, straightening up. "I'll be in town, mainly with Havoc, and I'll call as soon as I find out about the name issue." Hawkeye offered a brief departing wave and Mustang watched her leave with the sense of professional abandonment he felt in the office when she took a day off.

Ed casually saluted and sat down at the kitchen table eating.

"Call if anything!" Hawkeye let herself out but paused in the doorway and added a smile. "As always." And then she was gone, and with her, the inviting atmosphere in the house.

"Are Cheez-It snacks dinner?" Ed asked.

Mustang turned to his _partner_ in this mission and felt a headache coming. Ed was leaning back in his chair with the snack box held high shaking crumbs into his open mouth. Mustang tried to remember how much of the box he'd eaten, but no matter how he analyzed things it didn't amount to more than half. This meant Ed devoured at least half the box in mere seconds.

Mustang curiously contemplated whether or not he had eaten as much as a boy while feeling robbed. Cooped up here someone was going to have to feed Fullmetal, and this implication was insulting, as if he had to spend his time feeding someone who could feed themselves.

"No, I am making myself something," Mustang said, dismissing Ed and his bottomless stomach from his thoughts. He returned to the stove and Ed looked over considering Mustang silently while chewing. Ed wasn't lost on what Mustang had said, the message was loud and clear to them both.

"Will you make something for a man on the clock?"Ed asked, speaking with fat cheeks before swallowing heavily. Mustang brought a pot to the sink and chuckled. With the pot only half full the phone began ringing and they both looked at it.

"What time did Havoc say he was getting out?" Mustang asked, turning a serious gaze to Ed.

Ed wiped his face free of crumbs shaking his head. "He didn't tell me."

"Did you give anyone our home number?"

"I don't have our home number."

"Why don't you have it?" Mustang sat the pot aside. "It's in the POA. Write it down." Without Hawkeye at a phone there should be no one capable of calling them. Mustang answered the phone and brought the receiver to his ear. He remained silent, and so did the caller. Not a word was spoken. The caller was deliberately remaining silent eliminating even the minute change it could have been Breda or Havoc, and suggesting danger. When you were a mole in a mission you called the enemy to confirm their whereabouts. It is what you did when you planted bombs and when you opened fire. Standing with the mute phone Roy felt the sensation of cross hairs tickling him.

Mustang turned his gaze to Ed, and Ed adapted his developing anxiety as if it were a contagion. He pushed the cracker box aside and stood slowly in a heightened state of cautious alarm awaiting direction.

"Um...hello?" the caller finally spoke, in a soft meek voice.

Mustang let his shoulders sag in both relief and irritation. He was teetering on pissed thinking this could be a wrong number. "Who is this?" he demanded.

"Ah, Colonel?" the voice said softly, growing louder. "Hello, it's me Alphonse. Can-Is-can I talk to my brother please?" Alphonse asked.

_Apparently Alphonse had read the POA and written down the home number._

Mustang couldn't believe the concern he just had brewing, and he glared at the kitchen wall holding the phone and looking so annoyed Ed came over with confusion. _Got yourself all hot and bothered for nothing, huh Mustang? _he thought to himself. Ed gave Mustang a strong poke in the side, looking ready to support Mustang's disgust and worried there was some new development they needed to be disgustedabout.

Mustang gracelessly thrust the phone to Ed. "It's your brother," he said, tone flat. "Calls to and from Central cannot happen," he said firmly.

Ed ignored this and snatched the phone with excitement. "Al!" Ed spoke his brother's name in a smile. "Fine, you?" Ed stepped back and swiped the Cheez-It box from where he'd left the round dinning table set in the breakfast area of the room. Quickly he dumped the remaining square crackers onto the counter and began stacking them playfully while talking.

Mustang ignored Ed's chatter and resumed filing the pot with water. Ed's topics changed quickly from Central, to laundry which needed to be done, then a cat Alphonse had found, before Alphonse was speaking more, and Ed was listening and trying to answer in the same jovial tone that was at first coming naturally but now seemed forced. "It's not what I imagined it would be," Ed said, sounding honest. "It's…Different, I…yeah..." Mustang noticed the change in pitch immediately. "Well I am gonna have to try...cause I am not really..." Ed trailed off with his words backing into each other like cars piling up. _Reluctant to speak_, Mustang heard it immediately. Fullmetal was reluctant to speak openly with him in the room.

Mustang sat the pot on the stove and contemplated his options. Ed could not be having phone calls to and from Central. Also, Ed had to develop into a soldier capable of leaving his brother behind on missions, so the best course of action was to take the phone away. However…

Mustang watched Ed slowly stack crackers while listening to Alphonse talk. There was something which seemed almost cruel about taking the phone. It was the same cruelly that ate at him if he did not interfere when soldiers directed Ed to nonexistent room numbers, or told him exaggerated rumors to spook him. Mustang felt a familiar, albeit despised, Ed driven adult responsibility appear, and slightly annoyed he left the room suddenly and decided he'd ease drop instead.

He made his footfalls heavy, guaranteeing he would be heard before sneaking back to the kitchen doorway to listen. Ed now believed he was alone and was talking freely.

"They're getting me out of all the homework for two weeks, but I was there all day and I can't see a single suspect," Ed said, sounding exhausted. "No, I don't really like it at all. Everyone there has lots of money Al." The stack of crackers fell over like a tower of blocks. "This sounded really easy on paper, but it actually feels really weird." Ed's voice was becoming softer. "I miss you," Ed confessed quietly. "I am here all by myself with the colonel stationed in the house too." Mustang felt these words spring forward with surprise and insult. _All by myself? _He wasn't expecting to be Fullmetal's best friend, but he was a bit startled his relationship with the boy was so sterile Ed felt isolated and somewhat abandoned. Was this because the bond between the brothers was so strong the older would feel alone without the younger regardless of the separation? Or was he so less of a person to Ed that he could not fill even a single social void?

This bit at Mustang and stuck like a flea.

Ed began restacking his crackers.

"I stick out in the school. It was okay for an hour, but then it changed. The kids don't like me Al," Ed said, with a hint of irritation creeping into his voice. "They're all stuck-up and pampered; even though Hawkeye made this cover for me I don't think they buy it." Ed also sounded as if he didn't buy it. "Plus they keep staring at my automail like they've never seen any before." Alphonse began speaking and Ed was silent. Yeah right!" Ed laughed at whatever Alphonse suggested. "That would go over real well," Ed said sarcastically. The restacked Cheez-It tower fell back over. "I'd blow the mission." Mustang heard food in Ed's mouth and realized Ed was eating the Cheez-Its._ The stacking had gotten old. The stacking was no longer fun. Ed was eating the building materials. _"Speaking of the colonel, when Roy comes back I gotta get off, okay?" Mustang felt frustration creeping up on him. Apparently he couldn't fill any social voids. "I know I know, it's only my first day blah blah blah," Ed said, still fighting the gloomy depth hiding in his voice and struggling to win. Alphonse was helping to fight it off and it was growing weaker the more the armor spoke. "I will, I will," Ed reassured. "But I don't think I am allowed to call you so don't tell anyone if I do." Mustang felt his frustration increase. _There could not be calls to and from Central!_ "Yeah he said he'd court martial me but he's full of hot air. You know the Colonel." Mustang lifted his hand and made a fist._ Full of hot air was he!_ He was going to beat the boy!

Number five: Snide Ass Remarks.

"Yeah, I guess he's okay," Ed said, a bit reluctantly but not without sounding pleased in his confession.

Mustang was just about to ambush the kitchen and startle Ed, who would have been listening for him to return through the living room, when Ed stopped him in his tracks. Sounding a bit reluctant, but also pleased, Ed confessed to Alphonse, "Yeah, I guess he's okay." Roy froze. "His room is near mine so I'll be fine. I should be able to deal without you for a while. Hold up okay without me, okay?" Ed said, beginning his departure.

Mustang backed up to the bottom of the stairs and let his foot falls be heard as he approached. He entered the kitchen casually and Ed glanced up for just a moment. There was one stray Cheez-It left on the counter. "Tell Maria I say hi," Ed said, before lowering the receiver from his mouth. "Make a lot Mustang."

Mustang looked at the short boy leaning into the counter holding the phone over one lonely Cheez-It. "Are you bottomless?" he teased. Ed smiled and lifted the phone back to his mouth.

"Okay, I will. Bye Alphonse." Ed hung up.

Mustang was reading the pasta box's instructions for several seconds of complete silence before he realized Ed was motionless. He lifted his gaze curiously and Ed was standing on the other side of the counter looking back.

"Can I ask you a question Fullmetal?" Mustang asked, setting the pasta box back on the counter. Ed kept a patient gaze and didn't speak when Mustang retrieved the jar sauce Hawkeye had bought. Garden Mix, it was supposed to contain pieces of vegetables and things. She had put it in the cabinet with the few cans of vegetables she'd purchased. "Do you feel safe here?" he asked.

Ed made a twisted expression of confused insult, and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Safe," Mustang repeated. "We're staking out a location. We've placed ourselves in close proximity with an unknown enemy," he said, elaborating with the obvious. "So I ask if you feel safe here?"

"I feel safe no matter where I go colonel." Ed propped his automail haphazardly onto the counter by lifting his arm and dropping the elbow. He held it as if ready to arm wrestle for just a moment before turning his metal hand into a metal fist. Mustang studied the intense craftsmanship. The automail was fashioned in no way to be discrete, the bolts and screws were large and heavy. The arm itself made noise, and Ed didn't feel it, nor seem to notice the 'whack' of the elbow.

Mustang opened the jar of sauce. "I want you to know we're guarded well, and we're safe here." A simple twist popped the pressure seal. Mustang returned his gaze to Ed's metal arm before Ed's disinterested expression. "Just so you're aware."

"Thanks," Ed mumbled, tone entirely bored. Ed dropped the automail into the counter and the metal hand made a 'smack' when it connected. Ed didn't notice this either and instead tossed the empty Cheez-It box over the counter like a basketball player. It slam dunked into the garbage can and Ed smiled. "Score," Ed said, lifting the metal hand and pointing. _There, did you see it go in?_ "Fullmetal Alchemist One. Flame Alchemist…" Ed left the kitchen as he spoke but paused in the doorway to look back with a wide grin. "Zipo." Ed held up the metal right hand and curled it into a zero. "I am going to take a bath." Ed left and took the stairs up two at a time.

Mustang dumped the pasta into the boiling pot. The small hard shells sprinkled in like sand filling a bucket.

* * *

Thanks to everyone reading chapter 2! I hope you're enjoying this one as it plays out, please leave a review for me if you can.

Chapter 3: Is Everything Going to Be This Difficult (28 pages) will be up next Friday! Also I plan to post my first OHSHC story tomorrow, entitled "Without A Rubber." So if you're an OHSHC fan, sneak a peak! I think it will make you laugh. :)


	3. Is Everything Going To Be This Difficult

Another Run of Events  
Chapter Three  
_Is Everything Going To Be This Difficult?_

- mirage -

"What the hell is all this crap?" Mustang asked.

Ed sat at the kitchen table across from Mustang wearing a black wife beater and boxers separating piles from the mess caught beneath, and still spilling from, his book bag.

"They gave me all this. Stop touching, I am putting it in piles," Ed said, leaning over his bowl of pasta while trying to sort things out.

Mustang felt exhausted by this. His hair was still damp from his shower and he wore his favorite pair of blue cotton pants, but this far from Central these subtle comforts just weren't cutting it. He missed his office, his favorite places to eat, and his bed.

"Everything in this folder I am supposed to give you," Ed said, tone unusually serious. As if these papers held real importance and not just mission facade. "So pay attention."

Mustang looked at the papers which were being shuffled about before his dinner dish. They had heaping mounds of pasta. Ziti which did not want to fit into their bowls. They packed it in, mashing the ones at the bottom, forcing down the ones on top, and poured in the sauce. All the sauce they could fit. They filled their glasses with grape juice and added three packages of Pop-Tarts to the table per Ed's request: this was dinner.

"Okay this is Biology," Ed said, stabbing noodles with his fork as he spoke. Ed pushed a wad of ziti into his mouth and climbed to his knees in his chair to reach everything easier. Then a metal finger stabbed a packet of papers to indicate Biology. "English. Math. History." Ed broke the papers down into easy groups ignoring the complexity of the classes he had been assigned. "Homeroom-crap, office-crap, crap-crap." Ed poked three more piles before sinking back down in his chair and forking more into his mouth.

Mustang stared at the papers with disgust. Why would they do this? Why would they print so many documents and send them home with children!

Ed grabbed a Pop-Tart and ate half while looking expectantly at Mustang.

Speaking the first thought which came to him Mustang said, "This is ridiculous." _There must be twenty or thirty pages!_ "Why would they send me all this? Why send me outlines of your classes and what you're doing?" He lifted the Biology outline. "This is worse than work." He gave the paper a little shake and Ed looked at it while chewing. "Fullmetal." He gave the paper a second shake. "_Worse. _Worse than work._"_

Number five: _Lots of useless papers._

"You are a lazy colonel, colonel," Ed said, drooling out a bit of Pop-Tart as he spoke with his mouth so full before slurping it back in and wiping his mouth. "And I guess they think you'd want to know." Ed gestured to the piles. "If you really were a parent, and really had a kid, you'd want to know." Mustang was surprised with this insight. This was true. If Ed were his child he wouldn't just want to know, he'd demand to know. He wasn't expecting Ed to see this, or to see it before him, because neither of them had children, and Fullmetal didn't even have a father.

Ed sat swirling the last bite of his Pop-Tart in pasta sauce. "Therefore I suggest you pretend to be interested in your fake child, fake dad."

Mustang replaced the Biology outline and picked up the pile of office-crap. He read the first three pages silently. They were advising him on Ed's beginning week of school and what Ed could expect before outlining what they expected. "You need a physical," Mustang said. Ed was aware and nodded. He ate the sauce covered Pop-Tart in one bite and then forked in more pasta. "And they want you to take sports."

"I'll take one." Ed said, sounding indifferent. "What do they give me?"

Mustang looked up from the long list of options printed on the Physical Education handout. "What do you want?"

"Something where I canpunch stuff." Ed raised his automail fist. "Also I don't have to have a physical if I've had one in the last year. Is there anyway I can use my military physical and we can just flub part of the document or something?"

"They're not going to let you box with that Fullmetal." Mustang lowered the handout with annoyance. "And no, that would put the signature of the state doctor who signed your form on file here, so we'll just get you one. I am sure the town is used to that routine and we'll want to keep to it. Now what other sport might you like?"

"Something I can kick."

"Soccer."

"Too cliché."

"Soccer."

"Fine."

Mustang ate a few forkfuls of his meal before signing and initialing the mass of papers that required his approval and concent. _Course outlines, Emergency contact information, Parent-Teacher conferences, sport approval forms, medical records, and signatures that verified he was aware of what Ed would be taught and had no objections._

"We'll get your physical tomorrow morning. They seem like they want you to have it badly." Mustang stood and took the office-crap pile to the phone. Ed picked up a Pop-Tart and broke it in half. Half was dunked in sauce; the other half went straight into Ed's mouth. "They said they want you to have it by the end of the week so we'll over achieve." Mustang dialed Hawkeye. "I want your time at the school used seeking a suspect, so getting this out of the way early will be good. Sign up for soccer tomorrow."

"Will do Pops," Ed said, lifting his glass and chugging his grape juice.

Mustang lifted a slow eyebrow with surprise. _He had never been called that_. "Don't call me that," he said. Hawkeye picked up. "Ever." Hawkeye greeted him happily. "Again," he ordered firmly.

* * *

The next morning Ed left the house and deliberately slammed the door behind him to show how he was pissed. Mustang climbed into the driver's side of the 'family' car parked in their driveway ignoring this.

"Breakfast foods!" Ed yelled, locking the door and racing to the car. "I am talking about having _breakfast_ foods in the house so we can have _breakfast!_" Ed climbed into the car wearing his uniform and Mustang held the key in the ignition waiting for Ed to buckle. "I am freaking starving and I shouldn't have to starve while I work!"

Ed looked recovered from the move, energetic, and ready to go with the dress shirt only flattering him. Mustang was pleased the transition into this mission was progressing so nicely. They had relocated without drawing attention. Hawkeye and Breda had integrated into the town, Havoc the school, and Ed was working out well.

Mustang watched Ed struggle to buckle up. The automail hand was applying to much force for the belt receptacle, and Mustang noticed the only thing which had entered the car was Ed. "Where's your book bag?" he asked.

"Ah!" Ed dropped the seat belt and it sucked back into the side mount. "Dammit!" Ed scrambled out of the car and ran back for the house.

"We're going to be late!"

"I know!"

Ed had to unlock the door, get the bag from his room, lock the door again, return to the car, and once there, threw the knapsack to the floor of the car with hate. "Stupid book bag." Ed grabbed the belt buckle and fashioned it angrily. "Go! Drive! Go! Reverse!"

"Don't be a backseat driver Ed," Mustang teased dryly. Ed slouched down in his seat with a sigh of relief a moment of respite had been born. "Do you have gym today?" Ed mumbled confirmation. "Good. Make sure you don't slip up with Havoc," he ordered. "And make sure Havoc doesn't slip up." He wasn't sure who the weaker link was. They'd both have to play their parts in the gym setting regardless. "And you better be wearing your briefs because they're going to notice."

"I am not, but I brought 'em," Ed said. Mustang shot Ed a dark scolding look. _They had been through this!_ "I said I brought 'em!" Ed snapped defensively. "I am not going to the doctor in briefs like I am two! Get off my case about them Colonel! I don't pry into your personal life!" Ed gave the dashboard a miserable kick and Mustang tried to remain patient and friendly.

"This isn't your personal life." _How were they having so much trouble over something so trivial?_ "This is-"

"Yes it is!" Ed cried, kicking the dashboard a second time. "So just let it go!" Mustang pinched his lips and fought to hold his tongue. _Patient. Friendly. Patient. Friendly. _In the name of peace he let silence bloom between them and Ed seemed relieved with this as well. He sulked into the side of the car with his stomach rumbling and watched the scenery.

The town was beautifully kept with dark asphalt and perfectly timed landscaping framning even the basic shoulder of the roads. There was little expense spared and that was upon request of the residents who were used to the refinery.

"How long is this gonna take?" Ed asked, anger dwindling. "They seen automail before, or are they gonna try and dissect me on the table?"

Mustang swung into the town clinic and parked with Ed gently, but continuously, kicking the dashboard. Before he killed the engine Ed had climbed out and Mustang bit his tongue. _Patient! Friendly! Patient! Friendly!_

"Mustang?" Ed called from the other side of the car.

"Do I look like a doctor?" Mustang couldn't keep his growing irritation hidden any longer and it was born in sarcasm. "What difference does it make?" He skirted the car and followed Ed toward the main entrance. The clinic was a one level brick building. The entrance was noticeable and everything else was moderate business windows and professional landscaping.

They walked toward it quickly, racing against the clock yet again. Mustang knew his pace was fast and glanced at Ed to make sure it wasn't difficult, but Ed seemed to be storming toward the building more so than approaching it. "Don't be so touchy," Mustang said, uncertain where Ed's anxiety was feeding from. He could see Ed's stiff shoulders through the back of his dress shirt and he wondered if Ed's red coat often hid this from him, or if something else was happening here. "It'll be fine Edward." He laid a palm on Ed's shoulder kindly.

"If they haven't seen it before they get weird. Pretending like they're trying to make sure I am healthy, but they're just curious," Ed said miserably, before brushing Mustang's hand off. "And don't lay your hands on me like I need support. I am the one who had these put on me." Ed raised the automail hand and made a fist. The metal was bright in the morning sun and appeared even more cold and dominating in natural light. Ed's defenses were high. "I paid for it, I endured it, and I'll pound these people's faces in with it if they _touch it_." Ed gave his fist a menacing shake and Mustang nodded in acknowledgement only to appease Ed. _He didn't know what to say to this._ Ed obviously had some hot buttons which were being touched and Mustang thought it best he leave them be.

He knew the automail was a sensitive subject. After Scar ripped it off he had witnessed first hand how small Edward became without it. Suddenly it was one hand at a time. Everything was reduced with the abolishment of that arm, and that went beyond Ed's physical state. Ed became subdued, and lost momentum like a soldier without a sword. Armstrong had also informed him it took Ed's mechanic several days to repair the arm and that Ed was uncomfortable with his replacement. Mustang accepted that he could not truly understand or even relate to this, but tried to, by imagining the loss of Edward's arm would cause the frustrating vulnerability and uneasy discomfort loosing something which allowed you to stay in your element brought. Without that arm Ed's level of function and fighting was split down the middle, and although today no one was suggesting in anyway it be removed, or even touched, Ed's defenses seemed to have spiked to an aggravated level making the boy jumpy.

Mustang let Ed rant the entire walk to the door where Ed forced himself to calm. With a deep breath Ed ran a hand through his hair before gesturing to the door. Mustang had to lead to keep up appearances so he opened it for them both.

He walked to the receptionist with Ed and informed her they had arrived before taking a seat. Ed remained silent through this process, and sat stiffly in his chair nervously bouncing his knee.

"Fullmetal, you seem a bit on edge," Mustang said, keeping his voice extremely low. The lobby was all but empty in the early morning hour, but his words were for Ed only.

"It's weird being away from Al like this," Ed said, voice distant and thoughtful. Ed forced a smile, but it was weak. "I bet they've never seen automail in their life," Ed said with disgust. He shifted his weight quickly as if uncomfortable in his skin and Mustang noticed the knee bouncing quicker.

"Edward," he said softly, before lapsing into an uncertain silence. _What was there to say?_ Ed was staring intently into his lap and seemed to be separating from them. Mustang could feel his presence becoming less and less important to Ed as Ed's nervous worry grew. Ed seemed to be steadying himself for something, like a gladiator just waiting for that final thrust into the arena. _The end could be coming, quickly._

"They going to be as thorough as the military?" Ed asked, hands resting in his lap, flesh fingers fidgeting with the automail digits. Mustang considered how he could positively address what seemed to be happening. Ed was moving to a place where etiquette reassurances were necessary, but with the age gap, Mustang wasn't sure just which ones were necessary or appropriate. If he assured Ed there was nothing to be scared of, would Ed interpret that as an accusation he was afraid and become angry and defensive? "The military is thorough."

"Yes, they're very thorough," Mustang said, relating with experience. He was certified as a state alchemist as well. "But probably not here, this is a town, not a contract."

"Man I had nothing left to hide after that one." Ed looked up and forced another smile, but it formed poorly and crumbled just as fast.

"You're going to be fine," Mustang said quickly. He wished Hawkeye was with them. Quickly he tried to think of any directions she had provided for Ed regarding nervousness, but she hadn't left anything more than patient and friendly. Somehow she thought these two words could get him through everything. "You'll go in and be fine, and then we'll go to school. I'll stay right here and wait," Mustang said, keeping a casual but kind tone. Ed nodded and grunted a sound of acknowledgement towards his lap, but his knee began bouncing faster. "And..." Mustang struggled to add something. He knew more was needed, and he watched Ed's knee bounce in a rhythmic accuracy that was almost motor driven. "…and it will be fine." He couldn't think of any other friendly phrases. "It's you're second day, still rough." He laid a hand on Ed's automail knee and gave it a squeeze. He chose the metal knee so the action would be conveyed, but the personal, and rather intimate, touch was removed. Ed did not feel his hand, and he did not feel Ed's body. Beneath his palm it was cold and hard, but Ed's eyes looked to his hand. The action registered. "It will get better," Mustang whispered kindly.

"Elric?" A nurse called.

"I'll be back." Ed left his chair at a speed propelled by his anxiety. He walked directly to the nurse and greeted her briefly before following her through the door at the back of the room. Mustang felt an abrupt detachment, as if Ed was severed from the conversation, and was relieved to have been. Ed crossed the lobby with his anxiety rusting his joints and making him stiff and graceless. Mustang found this concerning. He'd never seen the boy so nervous in his life.

There was a payphone before the lobby and the second Ed was out of sight Mustang went to it and dialed Hawkeye. "Do you have Ed's personnel file with you?" he asked.

Hawkeye was immediately confused. "What's wrong?" she asked, her tone falling flat on itself so the word wrong was pronounced in a low accusatory tone. Mustang could hear papers moving as she sought out the file.

"I need to know if Ed has any phobias he's not telling me about."

"Where are you?"

"Town clinic for his physical."

"He sees Havoc today," Hawkeye said. The rustling of papers grew louder. "Tell him to make sure he doesn't slip up, and Havoc doesn't slip up."

Mustang smiled at the coin slot on the payphone. Their thoughts ran on the same path sometimes, and it humored him. "I already did."

"I don't have his file," Hawkeye said, sounding disappointed. "It's in Central."

"Is anything coming to mind?" he asked her, eager for anything she could recall, and even, anything she could suggest.

"I try not to pry. I have never read Edward's folder. That's not my business sir."

Mustang had to respect this answer, as inconvenient as it was. Just because he entrusted documents to her that he had clearance to view, did not pass that privilege to her, and she was of higher caliber solider.

"Okay," he said. There were still options left. "I have someone else I can call." He kept a calm and optimistic tone. It was not policy to bring employee personnel files on missions. She wouldn't have thought to bring it, but Mustang knew she now _felt_ she should have thought to bring it.

He took a quick glance toward the lobby to confirm inactivity. He felt deceitful having left the chair he had said he would stay in. As if he left his post and deserted Ed. It was odd, this feeling of attachment. He didn't know what to think of it, or how to begin explaining it. It seemed very misplaced because Ed was not really in his care, and yet, because he assured Ed it would be fine and Ed left with the understanding he would remain in wait, his movement felt deceitful.

Mustang hung up with Hawkeye and dialed quickly down to Central hoping the voice which picked up would be there.

"Hello?" Alphonse asked, sounding surprised and almost excited someone was calling.

"Alphonse it's Roy." Mustang felt even more disturbed being unable to properly announce himself. _Since when was he ever Roy to Alphonse Elric? _"I need some information from you."

"Information?" Alphonse sounded confused and slightly worried.

"Does your brother have any phobias I should know about?" Mustang asked. The line fell silent. Even miles away it was possible to feel Alphonse's immediate turmoil over releasing Ed's personal information so freely. "You need to tell me this Alphonse," Mustang said firmly. "We're in a mission and it's crucial." He reminded the boy of the facts. On a mission Ed's business was military business, and that included anything a colonel wanted to know.

"Did he have a nightmare?" Alphonse asked in a small soft voice. Alphonse sounded hesitant to ask, and worried he would either confirm or reveal information he did not want to confirm or reveal.

"What?" Mustang asked, taken off guard and confused. He gave the coin slot a look of disgust. _That was not what he asked_. "No. Now, I need to know if he has any phobias. Be quick about this please, I shouldn't be phoning you."

"Well…" Alphonse said, becoming a bit more relaxed. "Not any which are coming to mind. But I am not sure what you're asking colonel." Alphonse sounded confused and Mustang was becoming annoyed. _How could Alphonse not understand what was being asked! The question was simple!_ He wanted Ed's anxiety and change in behavior explained because it made Ed's actions hard to predict, and told him there was an uncharted variable which could rear its head later and perhaps interfere.

"He seemed worried to me, worried that a doctor might touch his automail."

"A doctor? Why would a doctor touch his automail?" Alphonse was instantly alarmed. "Why is he seeing a doctor? Is everything okay colonel? Can I talk to Ed?" Alphonse was spitting fast questions one right after the other like bullets.

Mustang laid a hand over his eyes and rubbed his temples with frustration. _My god._ Quickly he dragged his hand down his face and slapped it flat on the top of the phone. "For a physical," he said angrily. "Everything is fine. You don't know why that would bother him?" he asked.

"Well nii-san never really liked doctors, but he's not scared of them. He knows all his medical information so…" Alphonse trailed off thoughtfully before gasping with excitement. "But he is scared of needles. That's a phobia he has!" Alphonse announced cheerfully like he'd struck gold. Mustang felt his expression sinking with the weight of frustrated misery. He could not believe the lunacy being forced on him. Working with children was not working with adults. Number Six: _Lunacy._

"How scared?" Mustang asked, curiosity peaking.

"Is he getting one?"

"I am not sure. How scared is he of them?"

"Well…" Alphonse became reluctant again. "Scared enough," Alphonse said, sounding uncomfortable even with such a vague response. "He has a lot of practice taking them from…the surgery." Mustang heard the omitted information. _From the accident. From the accident where his limbs were ripped off and I lost my body. _"Really it's small ones that he doesn't like." Mustang didn't understand this. "Since he can't see when the big ones are coming he handles those better. If it becomes a problem colonel make sure he doesn't look at the needle. If he looks at it, you're done for. Tell him to turn away."

"What? Me? No, no I am not telling him this. I just needed to know," Mustang said, stumbling over a moment of awkwardness._ He was not becoming involved._ He was not being dragged into this lunacy

"All right than." Alphonse sounded relieved. "I hope the mission is running smoothly Colonel." Mustang felt frustrated. Frustrated and irritated by this boy who did not know, and could not know, the stupid things he had to put up with.

"It is. Thank you. Good day." Mustang hung up fast, and the payphone gave a short and slight ring of vibration with the intensity of the receiver slamming down.

Mustang left stalking for his chair. He was going to sit down, wait for Ed, and then belittle and make fun of the boy all the way down to the school he left him at. _Yes._ Yes that would be the plan and he was anxious to carry it out. If Ed thought he was the only one who could waltz about complicating things and making them harder for people, he was mistaken.

In the lobby a young nurse was standing in the vacant room looking worried before turning to Mustang as he returned. Her eyes made him stop in his tracks because he knew even before she spoke she was looking for him.

"Sir, I am so sorry to bother you but the doctor has asked that I come and get you," the nurse said. She beckoned to him as she walked toward the back door and he had no choice but to follow. It wasn't like he could refuse. What type of father refused to participate in their own child's health? "It's this door here sir," she said, indicating one of the exam room doors located in the back hall. She gave a quick knock before opening the door a crack and gesturing he enter.

Mustang gripped the door with confidence and entered the way he did the offices of men so much higher than him they could eat him for dinner and have room for more. With a graceful sweep of his arm he opened the door smoothly and stepped in with weight in his steps only to find a small meager exam room. There was nothing inside the tiny square but the exam table to his right, desk on the back wall, and two waiting chairs to his left. Inside the second one Ed was peeled down to his boxers.

Ed looked up when the door opened and was nervous with an advancing figure before recognizing Mustang and becoming embarrassed with the wide open door. Mustang closed it quickly the moment Ed's eyes glanced uncomfortably into the hall. He didn't know what to say, and so remained quiet. He didn't know why he was summoned. _Did he have to sign things? Did parents sign things at the doctor's office?_

Ed gave his head a slow exhausted shake with Mustang's silence. "So they went and got you, huh?" Ed asked, averting his eyes to the few health posters hung on the back wall. Ed was slouched forward in a pout and his knee was still bouncing. "Having a fake parent is beginning to be a real pain in the ass."

Mustang took a step forward, and the meager space placed him directly in front of Ed. "Ed, what's wrong with you?" Mustang asked in a disapproving tone. He gestured to the sloppy way Ed was sitting, and the obstinate aura he could literally feel rising from the boy.

Ed slowly lifted his gaze and reluctantly met Mustang's eyes. Ed's knee began bouncing faster and Mustang was rapidly drinking in the signs of Edward's anxiety: the tightened jaw line, the quickened breath, and the slight rigor mortis. _He had seen them all before on the battlefield. _In the trenches, and crouching about rubble and bombs, a man could get scared, but this _wasn't _a battlefield. _This wasn't a battlefield!_

"Ed, straighten up," Mustang said, scolding harshly. "For crying out loud, you're a national state alchemist." Ed sunk down in his seat and dropped his gaze. "If they came and got me to…" Mustang silenced when there was a brief knock and the Doctor entered. He was older than Mustang expected, but came complete with the trade mark white coat and stethoscope.

"You must be the father." The doctor extended his hand and Mustang shook it. It was getting weirder and weirder for people to greet him like this. Mustang forced a polite smile and tried to act as if he felt perfectly natural sandwiched in a room with his subordinate half dressed. "So I see young Edward here has a fear of needles," the doctor said cheerily.

"_Small_," Ed said quickly. "A _small _fear of needles."

The doctor entered and passed Ed with nothing more than a knowing smile. Ed watched the man carefully, with the eyes of a captive, and immediately became nervous when the doctor returned to the desk of medical supplies.

"I tried to give him this, and he nearly jumped out of his skin," the doctor said, indicating a waiting needle while snapping on rubber gloves. Ed followed the man's gesture and his eyes widened on sight of the long silver needle. Mustang knew Ed was nervous before, but he was amazed how accurate and correct Alphonse was. Ed became ten times worse once the needle was pointed out and the doctor was preparing to handle it. Ed squirmed back in the chair so he was sitting up straight and swallowed heavily.

"That's hardly accurate," Ed said, voice wavering. "I don't think it's asking a lot to want a minute to prepare," Ed said, stumbling over a few words when the Doctor lifted the needle and approached him. The doctor was more than twice Edward's height with Ed sitting, and Ed immediately lifted the automail and covered his flesh shoulder before apprehensively rubbing his arm. _Mustang was memorized._

"Now Mr. Elric," the doctor said kindly. "This won't hurt at all." The doctor leaned down holding the needle in his left and a fresh cotton ball in his right, and Ed pressed himself from the man's hand and flush to the far side. It was all that could be done save from actually climbing out of the chair itself. Mustang was actually surprised Ed wasn't trying to when he began wiggling in a small right-to-left shuffle as if sitting on a hot plate.

In a standard office chair wearing nothing but boxers Ed seemed to be shrinking right before Mustang's eyes. Ed pulled his shoulders in tight, leaned away from the cotton ball, ducked his chin toward his chest, and curled the flesh leg over the automail.

"Give me a second-give me a second!" Ed said, pushing the cotton ball away with the automail hand as though too unsettled to even use his flesh. Ed's breath was swelling to rapid fire. "_Doc!_" Ed snapped, when the Doctor passively lifted his hand over the automail palm and returned it to Ed's shoulder. Ed twitched when the cotton touched him, and Mustang felt utterly captivated with the transformation consuming the Fullmetal Alchemist.

Edward's expression was stricken with worry and all of his features were suffering. His brow was tenting up as his eyebrows came together and his eyes continued to widen in a look of frantic disbelieve and dismay. Ed's jaw moved from tightly clenched to tightly clenched with his lips drawing back in a growing wince. The sassy and assertive spark that seemed to live inside Edward's gaze disappeared as if it had been entirely snuffed out, and Mustang realized he was seeing the beginning expression of fear on Ed's face for the first time.

Slowly, after a few seconds of utter confusion, Mustang realized dumbly why it had taken him so long to realize what he was seeing. He'd never seen Edward scared or worried up close. When he met the broken child sitting in a wheelchair with missing pieces Ed looked hollow with a dormant fury just waiting to claw itself out. Inside the office and over the phone Ed was always a wise ass, the boy was clever and let his ego and wit run his mouth like a drunk. _An invincible drunk._ Edward never answered his calls or arrived in front of his desk scared or worried, he was only angry and mad. This made Ed entertaining, and a rapidly developing past time of his was the very simple sport of provoking and taunting Edward because angry and mad made Edward amusing.

"Okay!" Ed yelled, once the Doctor finished rubbing the cotton ball into his flesh shoulder. "Not yet!" Ed pulled his flesh arm over his chest possessively and began trembling. His eyes were locked on the needle as if that rubber glove were holding the philosopher's stone. The doctor grasped Ed's flesh arm gently and angled the needle in passive disregard for Ed's non-violent struggling and Ed yelled. "Al! AL!"

Mustang reached out and stopped the Doctor's arm before he knew what he was doing. _The cries for the younger brother, they disturbed him to a level that shocked him._ "Stop," Mustang said, halting the Doctor with the needle in aim. The man obliged and stood up to reveal one Edward Elric who was staring at Mustang with an expression of mortified shock. Mustang beckoned for Ed to stand, but Ed didn't move. "Okay, stand up," he said, beckoning again. Ed seemed frozen in place so Mustang grabbed the flesh arm and pulled him up. "Just relax for a minute. Move a bit and shake it off."

Ed staggered to his feet with a body as hard as stone. Immediately Ed dropped his eyes to the floor in shame and Mustang grasped Ed's shoulders and gave the boy a quick shake. Ed was ramrod straight and Mustang wanted to loosen him up. "All right, now sit down." Mustang pushed Ed to his butt, and Ed sat back bouncing his knee. "Now look at me," Mustang said, bending down to be eye level. Ed reluctantly obeyed and it was a struggle to keep their gaze. "You look only at me, you're not looking at the needle, understand? He's going to give it to you, and be done," Mustang said firmly, keeping a solid instructional tone. "This is stopping here Ed," he scolded. Ed gave a heavy exhale feeling stressed and anxious with Mustang's changing from supportive to disappointed. "How much time do you think we can spend at this clinic? We have things on our agenda." Ed's speed of breath was increasing as the lecture continued. _Things weren't getting better_. Mustang could see it in Ed's face. Ed's expression was struggling to remain as neutral as possible, but all fault lines were trembling. Ed's blinking was coming quickly and Mustang could see what he called the _'gaze of burden'_ and Hawkeye called the _'gaze of a child'_ fighting to stay locked with his eyes. Mustang was making it worse, but this was the only way he knew to behave. This was the only course of action he knew. _Lecture the boy to improvement._ "Now straighten up," he ordered. "You're acting like he wants your other arm and it's shameful. It's just one vaccine."

The Doctor took this moment to interject. "Mr. Elric he needs four."

Mustang silenced at once. _Four? _He hadn't known it was four. He was crafting this situation back together with his own two hands when the doctor took his plan, the plan which involved calming or pressuring, he didn't care which, Ed into obedience for his injection, hung it up and beat it to death with a stick. The small improvement he had managed, mainly Ed's silence and eye contact, was destroyed. Apparently Ed was not aware he needed four vaccines either and, upon hearing this, his eyes widened and the apprehensive wiggling returned.

Mustang gave the Doctor a dark look. "Can I have a moment with my son?"

The Doctor returned the needle to the desk and left peeling up his rubber glove. Mustang was impressed. People moved faster when he said he was Edward's father than when he said he was Edward's colonel.

Ed began speaking the moment the door closed behind the doctor. "Okay, I know," Ed said, wincing as he spoke. "_I know_." _I know this is stupid. I know I am being stupid. _Mustang heard Ed's meaning and kept himself patient. "I can't—you don't understand—but you don't understand. I just—I just!" Ed was babbling nothing while raking his flesh hand repeatedly up his forehead and into his bangs. "I-I have this fear of needles! And I…it's not as childish as it looks!" Ed sounded desperate. Toddlers feared needles because they hurt, but he feared needles because he remembered them so clearly. He remembered being stuck in a bed and having needles put in places he didn't know they could go. "It's…" Ed was struggling with the memory of Pinako keeping his only hand in a tight grip so she could slide a forth injection into his stomach. "I am not…"

Mustang reached forward and pulled Ed up by the arm. _He'd had enough of this dribble_.

"Stop pulling on me." Insulted Ed yanked his arm away.

"I told you to shake it off, now do it," Mustang ordered, giving a point to the corner of the room. "Walk it off Ed, walk over there." Ed rolled his flesh shoulder looking extremely uncomfortable before walking to the corner and turning around. Ed gave Mustang a dissatisfied stare and Mustang nodded. It wasn't his fault there was only five feet of walking space. "Sit down." Mustang waved at the chair. "We're going to try this again, and we're going to be successful." Ed returned to the chair and sat down slowly as if he wanted to speak but was holding back. Mustang ignored this. He didn't care what Ed had to say. If it wasn't agreement to sit still than it didn't matter.

The Doctor knocked again before returning. He looked slightly unsure what plan was in motion, and Mustang gestured to the medical supplies when the man looked to him. _He had a plan. _The doctor began snapping on new rubber gloves and Mustang stepped directly in front of Ed to block the boy's vision. "No talking," Mustang said, standing awkwardly close. Ed leaned away feeling appropriately invaded on. "Look over there," Mustang said, pointing to the far wall. He didn't trust Ed not to try and see anyway.

"Why!" Ed snapped. "I want to know when he's going to give it to me!"

"Well you're not going to," Mustang said angrily. _Arguing? There was arguing now! _"Now look over there or I'll Court…" Mustang stopped abruptly, the word '_Marshall'_ heavy in his mouth. In this type of setting he couldn't threaten Ed with any of his usual tactics. Frantically Mustang tried to think of what he could replace his _'court martial' _with. What was normal! How did parents threaten their children! If he threatened to smack Ed one, would the Doctor be upset? If he said he'd take off his belt? Or send the boy to his room? Or take away his very much beloved toy? What was it Ed loved he could take? Couldn't take Alphonse, he made the boy stay in Central. "Or so help me, you're not getting any dinner," Mustang said firmly.

"What!" Ed said, jaw dropping open in shock. This was perhaps the first time Ed had heard such a threat. Surely the boy's mother never deprived him of food. Mustang had the impression she was a saint and probably nurtured each of her children with tender loving words never having to strongly discipline them. _He did however._ Mustang grabbed Ed by the top of the head and twisted so Ed was facing the wall. "Now don't you dare move your head," he said, nodding for the doctor to begin. The old man was smart and had prepared a tray with four ready needles.

Ed stiffened the moment the Doctor approached. "Is he getting ready?" Ed asked, gripping the arm of the chair with white knuckles as he tried to keep himself still. "Roy?" The Doctor gave Ed's shoulder another rub of alcohol. "Roy? Is he going to stick me with it?" Ed asked urgently. Mustang ignored this with the Doctor, and the man gave Ed his first injection with Ed breathing like a bull and staring at the wall. However, the anticipation seemed to be Ed's demon. Mustang watched the small needle jab Ed's shoulder like a dart, and Ed twitched slightly but otherwise didn't move or speak. Seeing the needles come seemed unbearable, but taking them was nothing. "Roy? Was that just one? Do I have three more?" Ed asked, giving a little left-right shuffle. Mustang wondered how long Ed would continue to ask him questions with him ignoring them.

The Doctor gave Ed his second injection an inch below the small bead of blood left from the first. "Roy, answer me!" Ed anxiety wasn't disipating. Mustang kept the hand on Ed's head sensitive to any sign Ed would move, but the boy was only squirming parts of himself not locked in his grasp. "Do I have two more!" The doctor stuck the third needle in and Ed's automail hand shot out and snatched Mustang's.

Suddenly Mustang's right hand was flushed with the cold of Ed's metal hand. Mustang was surprised, and he knew it showed, but Ed never got to see it. Ed had squeezed his eyes tightly closed, and had his lips peeled back from his clenched teeth like a rabid dog. "Just do it! I can take it!" Ed said, squeezing down on Mustang's hand waiting for the fourth. Mustang wondered if he'd ever seen Ed look more vulnerable than he did now, sitting in his underwear with his spindly flesh arm trembling and being jabbed with needles.

The doctor stuck in the forth and then stepped back. "There. That wasn't so bad," the Doctor said kindly. The man covered each pink spot on Ed's arm with a brightly colored band-aid as Ed opened his eyes slowly and crept back to his surroundings._ Green. Orange. Blue. Purple._ Mustang kept his right hand limp. The automail couldn't sense the difference. Ed could tell he was holding on to something, but he couldn't tell if he was being held on to. With his eyes cracked Ed took the automail hand back and gently laid it over the band aids as an icepack. "You're almost done now Mr. Elric," the Doctor said happily.

Ed held his flesh arm with his eyes glued to his lap looking belittled and defeated

"Let's just get a look in your ears," the Doctor said, returning to Ed's chair.

Mustang stepped back. "I'll be in the lobby." He left. He felt his part was done, and much of him wanted to leave the tiny room where uncomfortable and work-inappropriate things kept happening. He added an item to his list. Number Seven: Shots.

* * *

Mustang broke the silence in the car and said, "Hawkeye wanted to remind you to watch Havoc and make sure he doesn't slip up, and to watch yourself and make sure you don't slip up."

After waiting in the lobby for twenty minutes Ed returned fully dressed in his uniform. Ed said two words: I'm done, and hadn't spoken since. Together they drove to the school in silence and Mustang didn't speak until he was pulling into the drive. "Understand?" he glanced at Ed.

Ed was watching the scenery with his automail hand rotating from covering the band aids to tugging at his sleeve in an attempt to hide them.

"Don't mess up. Got it," Ed said softly.

Mustang pulled up to the curve and Ed hopped out with his book bag. Ed didn't speak or make eye contact and Mustang watched him walk quickly into the sea of kids with the same tugging sense of concern he'd felt when he'd left his lobby chair. Dressed identically to every boy, Ed walked through the laughing socializing kids with a displaced subtle awkwardness Mustang was tempted to write off as his own paranoia. Adjusting his book bag higher Ed kept his head down as he went, and Mustang had a distinct feeling something was wrong. He just couldn't put his finger on it. Shifting the car into reverse he didn't notice the disruption Ed's presence caused around him. As Ed passed groups of students conversations stopped or paused in order to look at the gleaming metal arm.

* * *

"Point!" Havoc announced when the volleyball slammed onto the left side of the gym and hit the ground before anyone on the Blue Team stopped it. "White Team rotate!"

Havoc sat on the bleachers coaching a game of volleyball wearing his gym clothes in a state of bliss. Being a gym teacher was much easier than being in the military. Mission aside, he'd been enjoying his lazy day since the moment it started. As a teacher no one yelled at you, coworkers didn't prank you, and nothing blew up or shot at you. Life was wonderful. Infiltrating the teaching staff had been easy. He was social, fun loving, and flirtatious. The female teachers seemed kind, receptive to his advances, and were free of the skeptical and defensive barrier female soldiers held firmly in place.

"Blue Team, what are you doing!" Havoc called. In the remarkable gym his voice echoed up to the twenty-five foot ceilings. "Blue Team!" The walls were fine wood, the floor fine wood, and even the bleachers held fine craftsmanship. Havoc contemplated blowing his whistle. _He really wanted to. _

The Blue Team on the left side of the gym had several male students standing at the volleyball net and talking through it to a singled out White Team member. Gym attire was white tee shirts and black shorts, _short_ black shorts for the girls. In this outfit Ed's arm and leg were more than noticeable, they mine as well have been flaming appendages. On his side of the net Ed stood alone in conversation with the collection of Blue Team members standing on their side.

After Havoc's second yell the Blue Team stepped back throwing Ed some dirty looks. Havoc watched intently, trying to make sense of the conversation. All day Ed seemed to be attracting other students like his automail was a magnet. After Havoc's yell Ed glanced over, and that single glance, was enough for him to understand Ed was pissed.

Havoc had taught gym class to the three students pestering Ed yesterday when Ed was not yet assigned a class. From that single eighty minute block of experience Havoc had learned they were all very popular. They were well known about the school to both kids and faculty as families with lots of money. This seemed to mean slightly more attitude than you received from the average student. However, with the addition of Ed things had changed drastically. Class focus 0, Edward Elric 100. Havoc's typical gym class encompassed at least twenty kids. The classes were not co-ed, and Havoc found he loved the girls' class most of all. Not only were the girls cuter, but they seemed to be more at peace and followed instructions smoothly with pleasant demeanors. Since the boys had arrived it was nothing but noise, and the level of competition was intense.

Ed seemed a bit unprepared for all the attention he was receiving, and continually gave each new conversation the benefit of the doubt, but was learning the culture quickly. The stares and comments were easy to understand, because they were rude and ignorant. With the class nearly half way through, it had only taken Ed a half an hour to get the gist of this equation and that was: Allies 0, Enemies 100.

Much like entering the military and being surrounded by soldiers who didn't know what to think, Ed handled school the same way he had his co-workers: aggressively.

With tension and competition high, Ed threw himself into the volleyball game because he could, and the third time he slammed the ball over the net in a vicious spike it landed in front of student Tommy Mahoonie. Tommy was first in the gang of snobby Blue Team students, seconded by Jeffery and Sam who were always with him. "Point!" Havoc announced.

"He's cheating!" Tommy yelled, pointing accusingly at Ed who stood with a wide, and very pleased, grin. "Coach! _Come on!_" Working in the gym Havoc was learning quickly automail didn't seem to exist in the school. Although it was common enough in society, its absence in the school made enough sense considering the age of the students. Child automail was uncommon, and child automail at Ed's degree next to unheard of. There were age guidelines and procedure changes for children, and it was unlikely any child, regardless of the reason, would have had the surgeries and rehabilitation fast enough to be here playing volleyball today. This seemed to make the children curious, nervous, and in Tommy's case, disgusted. "Get off the team Elric!"

"Why don't you cross that net and say that to my face," Ed said, locking Tommy in a hot gaze. Ed seemed mildly indifferent to the cold shoulder he received from male students, and even took little offense from the inconsistent but mild hostility. However, Tommy had been at this since class started, and even Havoc could see Ed getting close to his line.

"Cut it out guys!" Havoc said, tossing Ed an eye flare when Ed glanced back over. _Where was his backup! Was Ed really planning on making his class this difficult? _Havoc motioned for the game to continue. "Serve the ball! Play dammit," Havoc said, fanning his hand in a circular motion.

The ball was in play and things were heating up. Both teams were aggressively saving and fighting to score. At his first chance Tommy spiked, and the velocity of the ball would have been too much for any possible defense. It was a smooth and talented move that Ed's automail fist slammed back into the air.

Tommy snarled, eyes locked on the sailing ball. "You_ freak!_" Tommy yelled. Ed watched the ball come back his way and slammed it down a foot from Tommy. _Point. _"He's cheating!" Tommy cried, looking again to Havoc, the coach, for backup.

"Point!" Havoc called, giving Tommy an elaborate shrug. "We're all playing fairly," Havoc said casually. _There was more to life than one volleyball game. _"I don't want to hear anything about cheating Tommy." Tommy turned a dirty vicious look on Ed who stood flexing his metal arm and smiling. "And Ed wipe that smile off your face." Ed's head whipped around to Havoc in shock he was included in the guilty party. Havoc let Ed see his frown, and through his eyes gave him the soldier's scolding '_get it together' _stare. _They were supposed to be on the same team._ "Let's just have somefun."

The ball was served and the Blue Team slammed it over to White. They shot it back, and Havoc watched the ball bounce from either side of the room. The ball followed twenty smooth exchanges when Tommy's frustration couldn't wait for a chance to vent on the ball any longer.

"Why don't we snap that car part off and see how good you are?" Tommy asked Ed, bitter sarcasm lacing his tone. Ed ignored this with the natural confusion that came from finding something odd in a place it didn't belong. Amestris had low automail racism, and although Ed had heard it was out there, he had never had it directed at him, let alone from a peer. Suddenly things felt a bit lonelier with Alphonse missing alongside of him. Tommy's aggressive comments were clear, and Ed didn't understand why the automail was causing such targeting, but he felt confident as to how he should respond.

"Why don't I put this car part through your teeth," Ed said, becoming angry. Both boys spoke with eyes glued to the ball waiting for the first chance to slam it. Their hands were fists at their sides, and the tension between them was visible.

"I haven't seen you spike any with the left arm," Tommy taunted. "What's the matter?"

"The left arm is better than the right, I am doing you a favor."

Both teams were too worked up for the ball to sink anywhere near the net where Ed and Tommy were both in Setter positions. This kept them practically stationary, and insults were getting old.

"You freak. What happened to your real arm?" Tommy asked angrily. He lifted his chin a bit and gave Ed an ugly smile. "Huh? Where'd it go?" Ed was ignoring this question and Tommy immediately became intrigued. "Come on, where'd your real arm go?" Tommy stepped closer to the net and Ed looked at the boy with a measured glare of hate. "You can tell me," Tommy said with false kindness. "Where, huh? Your mama sell 'em to pay her pimp?" Ed's eyes lit up with rage and Tommy laughed with delight he'd found the nerve he was looking for. "Is that right?" Tommy asked, with a thoughtful tone. "Well." Tommy's smile disappeared. "I'd say that's about right for someone of such poor class," Tommy said, lowering his voice. "You think you have any of us fooled?" Tommy gestured to the faces he knew would be right behind him, and Jeff and Sam gave Ed smug grins. "You look like a freak and everyone here knows it. I am just the only one saying it. You don't _belong_ in this school."

From the bleachers Havoc could see Tommy's mouth moving but he couldn't make out the words. Ed also didn't seem to be moving so he had to assume it was casual, although probably rude, chatter.

"I can't even imagine how they let you in," Tommy said, continuing happily. "I mean, I can't imagine how you could afford it!" Havoc heard this comment and decided he was going to relocate to the bottom of the bleachers where he could hear everything in hopes his presence would calm the kids down. "Or maybe that's where you real limbs went," Tommy said. Ed's automail hand curled into a fist at this side. Ed felt hot with rage and mentally he was focusing on Alphonse's scolding voice, _'Nii-san! Don't be so impulsive. You anger too easily!' _"Maybe you gave everything you could to get in here." Tommy laughed. "Or maybe that's why your momma had to."

Tommy's last comment made Ed blind with anger, and he charged for Tommy's grinning face. He only made it six feet before Havoc caught Ed's arm and jerked his body to a halt. "All right!" Havoc yelled angrily. The ball stopped, and Havoc could feel Ed heaving in his grasp. "Tommy I had enough of you. Get the helloff my court!" Havoc tossed an aggressive point toward the entrance to the boys' locker room.

"What!" Tommy cried, drooping his shoulders in protest. "But he started it!"

"I am not discussing it Tommy," Havoc said, feeling exhausted. "Just get out of my sight."

Tommy threw Ed one last look of hate and left to change.

Havoc looked down at the alchemist he worked alongside of. Ed was watching Tommy walk away with his face curled into a snarl and his breathing heavy. "Ed, hit the showers," Havoc said kindly, releasing Ed's arm.

"What an asshole!" Ed declared.

Havoc knew Ed was speaking to him only and that for Ed this was common enough to say, but here at the school, Havoc had read a nice full page of his handbook discussing profanity from students and how this snobby place felt about it. Havoc gave Ed a small shove and knocked the boy forward a step. "Take a load off. Hit the showers," he repeated.

Ed wasn't expecting the sudden push, and startled, looked back at Havoc with confusion. The physical space being inserted between them felt powerful, like the link between them in this mission just loosened. "What?" Ed asked, with disbelief. _Why was he being punished!_

"Ed, we don't need this unnecessary attention," Havoc said quickly, keeping his voice down. "Just go chill out."

"But you heard what he said!" Ed said, gesturing angrily toward the locker room. _How could Havoc think that was okay!_ "This is bullshit! Why the hell should I have to leave too!"

Havoc narrowed his gaze and gave Ed a patient frown. He knew in an adult world this look meant enough to stop things here. It meant _'we'll do this later,'_ but Ed was angry and was missing all the signals. "Ed, just go."

"That's stupid!" Ed snapped, escalating quickly. "He was the one being an asshole! I didn't start anything! He's lucky I didn't beat his face in! I am not-"

"Elric!"

Ed silenced when Coach Greyman, coach for the last thirty years, barked his name loud enough it traveled across the massive waxed floor with the intensity of a slap. Ed jerked with surprise and turned quickly to see who was calling him.

"_ELRIC!_" Coach Greyman was comfortable with his position, comfortable with the students, and had long ago made it very clear he was the teacher and everyone else was not. With a hearty voice, the man lifted a strong and well developed arm up and pointed at the space in front of him. "_Get over here!"_

Ed was stunned, and stood staring across the gym at the coach who reached a few inches over six feet and threw his voice like you threw a brick. "Who's that?" Ed asked Havoc softly.

Havoc snuck a second glance at Ed. "My boss," he said. "The head coach." That morning the same head coach, who now looked fierce enough to take on a mad bull with his bare hands, had brought him coffee and welcomed him to the school. Mid forties the coach had a kind twinkle in his eye, but even at a glance, that twinkle wasn't enough to distract from the fact he was not a force to be reckoned with.

"_Elric now!"_

Ed left Havoc's side struggling to mask the small unmistakable pause of hesitation. He crossed the gym as quickly as he could feeling the eyes of all of his classmates. The volleyball game had stopped when Havoc walked directly into the playing field to keep one student from tackling another. Now there was only dreaded Coach Greyman yelling at the new kid.

Havoc watched Ed approach the large man. Coach Greyman was towering in the doorway to the gym office like an ogre, and Ed, although desperately trying to hide it, was scurrying over with the same hastened anxiety in his step Havoc had seen when the Colonel began yelling. _Thank god the colonel was not that tall._

The coach didn't wait for Ed to reach him; he started his loud lecture with Ed still ten feet away. Havoc glanced around at his class. "Well!" he said, gaining their attention. "Serve the ball!" He tossed his arm up as if to serve it. "Fill in for them! Get this game going!"

The class returned to their sport with greater enthusiasm now that the internal tumor, consisting of Ed on one side of the net and three Blue members on the other, had stopped interrupting the game with hostility. With the White and Blue team playing freely Havoc returned his attention to Ed. The coach had Ed rooted in front of him and Ed was getting the shit kicked out of his ears. It was a suitable scolding and Ed was making it worse by continuously arguing. At the school, things did not work like they did in the military. Havoc saw the coach's patients deteriorating as he shook a finger in Ed's talking face before hauling Ed into the hallway by his ear.

The sound of the ball hitting the court yanked Havoc's attention back to the game. "Point! Rotate!" Havoc said. He returned his gaze to the gym office and tried to gauge if the class was settled enough to walk over there. The kids seemed to be playing naturally and enjoying the game in a state of brittle comfort since one of them was sent to the showers and Coach Greyman was screaming at the other. Havoc couldn't resist. He crossed the courts and walked to the gym office.

The coach was inside seated behind the expensive wooden desk doing paperwork. Havoc leaned into the office doorway and gave an exhausted sigh to gain the man's attention.

"That Elric's gotta mouth on him," the Coach said, without looking up. "I am not taking that kind of lip, and neither are you. Don't let these kids walk on you James." Havoc smiled when the Coach stopped writing and used the pen to point at him. _He wasn't worried about being walked on by children._ "They think cause their daddies got a lot of money they can do whatever they want," the Coach scoffed. "Now sometimes that's true, but here in my court I make the rules." Coach Greyman returned to his paperwork and grunted down to his desk "Right James?"

"Right," Havoc said cheerfully.

Coach Greyman broke a warm deep laugh and sat back in his chair. "You handled Tommy right, I am impressed." Havoc smiled. "But Elric's gonna be running laps for me. We're not having that on our courts, you understand?" Coach Greyman stood up and Havoc backed out of the man's way. "I have a meeting. Think you can cover?" Coach Greyman extended his clipboard.

"No prob." Havoc took the clipboard and saluted.

"James, you don't have to be so formal," Coach Greyman said, laughing. Havoc lowered his hand and ran it down his thigh with embarrassment.

"Sorry. Old habit."

"Make him run four, don't care if it takes him an hour," Coach Greyman said firmly. Havoc felt his optimism sink. "And he gets his demerits out in the hall there for the remainder of class." Coach Greyman locked the office behind him and pocked his keys. "Good day today James." The man tossed Havoc a wink. "Good day."

Havoc felt pleased with this review of his work. Even though it was just managing gym class, he didn't have the slightest bit of teaching experience, and had never been a good academic student. In a way which was hard to explain, it felt good to have a hard-ass like Greyman tell him he did well.

Havoc dismissed the boys fifteen minutes early against his better judgment. The more he thought about it, the easier it seemed to let Ed off the hook. He was the teacher, wasn't he? As the only one on he had the ability to make that call, didn't he? Havoc felt torn between doing Ed a favor, and remaining loyal to his position within the mission. In the end, right before he stepped foot in the hall to stop Ed's demerits, it was the thought of the colonel's furious expression that removed Havoc's indecision and left Ed where he was. Havoc closed the volleyball net, and packed away the ball feeling at peace with his resolve to do what he was asked and obey the mission, when a small commotion bloomed in the hallway.

Once the boys' were dismissed they filed into the locker room in groups, and emerged back in uniform the same way. By the time Havoc made it to the hall Tommy had exited the locker room with his posse and was back in Ed's face.

Directly outside the locker room hallway entrance Ed was standing in front of the wall with Tommy two feet in front of him.

"Tommy!" Havoc snapped, approaching quickly. Havoc had seen demerits from gym already and knew what Coach Greyman liked to do. It was simple, yet effective. He pulled you to the hallway by your ear, told you what he thought in great detail, and then left you kneeling to face the wall outside the locker room entrance. This guaranteed any peers entering or exiting the gym would see you, and if you were in gym class, that would be your entire class.

Tommy pointed at Ed's aggressive standing self to indicate the violation of the demerit and Havoc took a step forward.

"Tommy so help me," Havoc said, dropping his hands to his hips.

"He got up on his own!" Tommy insisted. "You should punish him for that coach. He violated his demerits! It's only fair." Tommy looked too pleased this was fair, and although Ed looked furious Havoc could see the confusion bleeding into Ed's face. Ed didn't seem to realize he had invited more reprimanding until Tommy pointed it out.

"He got in my face!" Ed cried, in self defense.

"He violated his demerits Coach!"

"Tommy, get out my hall before you're in trouble too," Havoc snapped.

Tommy saluted playfully with his posse backing up with him. "Yes sir!" Tommy cheered. Havoc watched the boy solute with Ed and was sure Ed was as disgusted with this as he was. Tommy would never know how irritating that sarcastic insult would strike them as soldiers. "Thanks for teaching class today sir! See you!" Tommy left running from the hall with a laugh and his posse followed chuckling and looking back with wide grins.

Havoc had never been picked on in school. In fact, he was a bit ashamed to admit he had done the picking on. He was athletic and academically challenged, and where he came from, that didn't equate to a nerd, that equated to a jock. He had his own posse, his own string of girlfriends, and remembered joining the military ready to have his own gun and continue that routine.

Havoc looked over to Ed. Ed watched Tommy leave before dropping back to his knees in front of the wall. At only half his size Havoc tried to determine how athletic Ed was. He had seen the boy do some amazing things, but it was hard to separate out the alchemy. _How skilled was Ed without it? _Or perhaps the better question was, _how capable was Ed living without it?_

"Hey Ed," Havoc said sympathetically. He gestured for Ed to stand. He sympathized with Ed for enduring his position with his classmates walking past and commenting as they saw fit. "Get up man." Ed climbed to his feet slowly with an expression of absolute disgust. "The coach tell you he's got you running laps?" Ed gave Havoc a bitter smile, and Havoc knew Ed's look of contained anger well enough to understand Ed was briefed on all that was to happen. "Let's go man," Havoc said, beckoning for Ed to follow. "We're going outside."

Ed followed Havoc across the vacant gym, out the back doors, and toward the track field in abject silence. Even being late afternoon the outdoor temperature was still inviting. There was a soft breeze, the smell of the freshly cut school lawns, and the lowering sun. It was refreshing to escape the building to such wonderful weather, but as they approached the perfectly maintained track field Havoc could feel Ed's building aggravation and insult and tried to lighten the mood. "You can't let yourself get so worked up Ed." Ed closed his eyes when he heard Alphonse telling him the same thing. "This school has its own rigid standards and you don't want to mess with them. You're lucky the coach didn't bust your ass." Havoc stopped at the entrance of the track field and Ed passed him calmly.

The school's track was impeccably maintained and very large. Four laps was going to be quite the unexpected work out and Ed felt sick with disgust Havoc was going along with this. _Weren't they supposed to be on the same side?_ As a teacher Havoc could overrule the other Coach, or even just say he ran and let him off. How was spending time out here running around any help for their mission? Ed felt sure even the colonel would agree with him there.

Ed spoke only one word when he passed Havoc. "Prick." Then he walked into the first row on the track field and knelt down to run.

Havoc felt his sympathy give way to a bit of frustration. If Ed wanted to be rude about things there was no reason he should go out of his way to be considerate. "Ed the only reason you're doing this is because you couldn't keep it together. You've got no one else to blame but yourself." Havoc felt worse after speaking. Ed was crouched on the field waiting to be told to go. In his position Ed was staring down at the tartan track beneath him, but Havoc got the impression Ed wanted to look down. He could see the beginning of defeat seeping into Ed's expression, and he knew he didn't have to rub it in. "I didn't mean it like that man," Havoc said kindly, trying to think of a way to improve the situation. Ed didn't seem to hear this either and Havoc sighed. He had some things he wanted to say, he wanted to explain he remembered some of this from his own childhood, but Ed looked just a little too angry and ashamed to hear him. "Whenever you're ready."

Ed took off before Havoc finished his sentence. Ed was running hard and angry, charging into the track like he wanted to kill it. "This is so messed up," Havoc thought, tipping his head back and watching the clouds. He had been on the phone with Hawkeye going over blueprints last night and he hadn't been able to report anything suspicious. The school seemed to be an operating business. Everyone was consumed with their tasks. The faculty seemed normal enough. Several of them had been with the school for decades and were extremely anal, while others seemed to be upholding such standards simply because that was the requirement. As far as students were concerned, they also seemed to clump into two extremes: the rich nerds, and the spoiled rich kids. The latter thought they were all somebodies, and just like with Tommy, were not afraid to push the limit. However, the school strictly prohibited any backtalk or swearing, and although the code of conduct said that was to groom professionalism, Havoc had to believe it was to save him and every other faculty member from trying to hang themselves.

With the stake out so fresh Havoc tried to reassure himself the fact they saw nothing was only because it was the second day. However, considering how long stake outs could sometime take, Havoc felt worried on Ed's behalf. Whatever Ed's school was like, it certainly wasn't this place, and Ed had long ago moved past the sniveling child bit and developed a career that made it hard to just submit and accept people dumber than you ordering you about. At least with the military you reported to a talented man who, however dumb, you knew could whoop your ass with just a sneeze if he wanted to. Whether Ed wanted to admit it or not, they all knew the colonel was capable, and their loyalty grew from this capability and kindness. This school did not work to foster loyalty like the colonel. It was not going to march into battle with these students, and therefore the kids were expected to do what was required of them and nothing more. For Ed, this would be like following a fool, and Havoc knew that would be hard. Already he saw the kids ostracizing Ed because of the automail, and combined with Tommy's fat mouth...

Ed ran up to the start line and doubled over to rest his hands on his knees panting.

"One more." Havoc raised a single finger and Ed looked at it puffing heavy breaths.

"You're…a backstabbing…bastard," Ed managed, gulping breaths after running his three laps straight.

"Come on Ed, I didn't do this," Havoc said irritably. _It was obnoxious he was being blamed._ "I have to listen to the coach Ed. Here he's the colonel. What happens if I get fired for not doing what I am supposed to?" Ed stood up catching his breath. "Don't put me in this position." Ed took off down the track. "Dammit." Havoc sighed. He couldn't deny he felt some what responsible for actually making Ed run and not dismissing him. It did seem like a knife in the back because Ed was right. Tommy was asking for it and the kid was out of line for saying what he had. He couldn't blame Ed for wanting to punch him in the mouth. He would have as well.

"All right Ed," Havoc said cheerfully, when Ed returned and staggered to the start line panting. "Hit the showers." Ed stood up fluffing the front of his tee shirt to cool himself off and shot Havoc's bright smile a look of disgust. "You know you're pretty fast."

Ed ignored the compliment and left Havoc behind. Alone, and silent, he crossed the field and disappeared into the building.

* * *

Professor Chumler was a science major, of short statue and in the habit of always wearing the same gray sweater over daily rotating outfits. He had chosen the prestigious Workashire campus as prelude to his retirement, and it had graced his resume for the last six years. Standing before a blackboard of elements and equations, he was growing more and more annoyed with the lack of class focus from a normally studious classroom. Today's lesson was nothing to sneeze at, and yet many of the students seemed preoccupied.

"All of these facts are very important, especially when in reference to the periodic table," Professor Chumler said, casting a scrutinizing gaze about the room. Those who were paying attention looked nervous with his visible dissatisfaction, but many failed to even realize he was giving his lecture.

Reflective of most science classrooms, desks were fashioned to sit two students along side one another for the ease of experiment and many textbooks. With his roster all were filled with the exception of the very back row, which now housed only the new student.

In the back right the boy sat alone, slouched into his chair, and with a look of complete disinterest. As it was sometimes common to have new students placed in advanced classes they were quickly removed from, this boy gave off every vibe of an inaccurate placement with his lack of participation and even the common courtesy of attention to the lesson. However, juxtapose this was his perfect class work, a screaming contradiction.

Today's session opened with a pop quiz, and the new student answered all questions, including the exceptionally hard bonus question, correctly, and at a speed that suggested academic dishonesty. Before the quiz, passed out on the right side of the room, had even made it to all students on the left, the boy flipped his paper over to symbolize completion and Mr. Chumler had casually strolled to the back and stopped along side the boy's desk with a kind smile. If his directions were unclear, or if the boy was just now feeling the cold and serious grade point danger to engaging in a class well over his head, redirection could be given.

"How are you getting settled?" Mr. Chumler asked, linking his hands behind his back and keeping his voice low so as not to disrupt the other students.

"Fine," Ed said, staring up at the old school teacher the way he stared up at drill sergeants who were thinking up their next order.

"Do you have any questions on the quiz?" Mr. Chumler indicated Ed's paper with a discrete nod. "I won't hold the grade to you as you were not given proper notice. Just try your best."

Ed flipped the test over, and remained silent when Mr. Chumler leaned in with confusion and read the tiny handwriting filling every answer space. The hastily scribbled penmanship suggested something as childish as a word jumble, as if the boy had simply filled in blanks to complete the sentence, and needed not a moments pause to think of the answer.

"Do I keep this, or do you keep this?" Ed asked, looking unsure. When you were homeschooled it didn't matter if you or mom kept your tests.

Without a word Mr. Chumler had taken Ed's quiz back to the front of the room and waited the allotted half an hour for most students to struggle through the quiz. He had decided to reserve his opinion of his new student, but now the boy's rude behavior was beginning to eat at him. For the better half of his lesson the boy had been staring out the window with unseeing eyes. This arrogant disregard for study was not lost on the surrounding students either, and shortly there after several of the students had begun engaging in pranks with the new boy. First a wadded up ball of paper was tossed at him, and then whispers were running back and forth.

"Class pay attention up here," Mr. Chumler said sternly. He lifted the ruler he kept along side his teacher's edition text book and smacked it loudly into the desk. The harsh sound rippled silence into the room, and all students trained their eyes up front again. "Mr. Mahoonie, eyes at the front of the room please," Mr. Chumler said curtly.

"Sorry sir." Tommy immediately straightened up in his chair, and Mr. Chumler gave a cold nod and sent a wondering eye to the odd new student. Ed had looked over briefly with the slap of the ruler, but was now already facing the window again.

"I'll expect your homework all to be done thoroughly and I want you each to relate the topic to the periodic elements," Mr. Chumler said, looking down to his lesson plan to continue. Instinct said he could move on, but the culture of his class seemed to have changed since yesterday and he paused and lifted his gaze again.

Tommy had twisted in his chair to face the new boy who was in the process of showing Tommy a few rude gestures. With the lesson plan interrupted Mr. Chumler waited, at first confident both boys would realize the teaching had stopped, before becoming angry when neither of them did. A few other boys joined into conversation with the new student, and all of them were slouching downward and whispering angrily to one another with no suggestion they would stop anytime soon. All attention was on socializing, and angrily Mr. Chumler raised his voice and said, "If you two don't stop it this instant I'll have you both up here reciting each and every element!" He slapped his ruler loudly into his desk and all students startled. Tommy immediately corrected himself, and Ed became weary as well. "This behavior is unacceptable and I won't have it. I expect neither of you to pass my final with such deplorable classroom behavior. My expectations are high and I will expect you to know each element and its details. Do you think you can do that?" Mr. Chumler asked, glancing from face to face before pausing on Tommy. "Hm, Mr. Mahoonie?"

"No sir," Tommy said obediently.

"Or you Mr. Elric?"

"Yes."

"Without knowing the entire table you…" Mr. Chumler trailed off with a bit of surprise. Curious he reached up to his chin and graying stubble and plucked it thoughtfully. "Excuse me Mr. Elric?"

"I do know all the elements," Ed said. "And I can recite them all."

Students in the class turned slowly, swiveling in their chairs to cast a mixture of odd and hateful glances to their new peer.

"If I am understanding you correctly Mr. Elric, you are saying you know and could recite all elements of the periodic table, is that an accurate statement?" Mr. Chumler asked, providing as polite an out as could be granted to a student who boasted falsely and would not be able to support it on the spot.

"Yes," Ed said casually.

"He can not," Tommy snapped, voice just loud enough to be heard.

Ed's gaze turned to Tommy with irritated confusion. A few of the students began snickering and Mr. Chumler considered the class. Although he did not like to disrupt his academic schedule there was something odd about the new boy who kept openly defying the basic student way of life without seeming to grasp that he was.

"All right Mr. ELric, we'll entertain this," Mr. Chumler said, beckoning for Ed to stand. Ed sat motionless, he didn't necessarily want to stand up with everyone looking at him, but he certainly wasn't going to have people suggest he didn't know something as basic as the periodic table. "Come now, stand up son," Mr. Chumler said, waving upward with greater emphasis.

Ed felt his hand grow clammy and looked down at it with a sense of betrayal. He had faced the Fuher for his alchemy initiation, the homonculous, and Brigadiers who were so powerful they could snuff him out if he was denied a chance at offense, so why here? Ed pushed quickly to his feet, angry with his own skittishness, and swallowed the dry feeling that rose in his throat when the absence of a towering suit of armor at his side made him feel alone and vulnerable.

"Elric, you're such a bold faced liar!" Tommy snapped, unable to handle it any longer. "Sit down and stop disrupting the lesson!"

"Mr. Mahoonie," Mr. Chumler said, firming his voice to a quick scolding. "Give him a chance to speak and don't interrupt him."

Ed took a single cleansing breath and forced himself to relax. With grace, he began at the top and began to name the elements one by one.

* * *

Standing at Mustang's side Ed had his arms crossed over his chest and was staring miserably at his feet. With the question he looked up just long enough to read the can before shaking his head.

Hunger had driven them to the market, but so far the trip was not proving a success.

"Ed pick stuff out and put it in the cart because I want to eat the stuff I am picking out myself," Mustang said irritably. Edward was being less than helpful and had turned into a silent weight he was lugging around with him. He couldn't leave the boy alone in their false home, so Edward had to come with him. As a result, he had picked the boy up from school, and Ed was annoyed he didn't have a chance to change from his school uniform. Ed did not want to parade around the town wearing the degrading uniform of a snobby student and felt forced out of his element in the regulation issued clothing.

_Mustang didn't see the difference._ He had spent all day reviewing information with Hawkeye. They now had a better understanding of the town's layout, school's zoning, and research on the staff, possible targets, and areas they wanted to investigate. However, since Hawkeye could not buy groceries in a I-Just-Moved-Into-Town quantity, what she'd purchased two days ago was gone, and with Ed brooding at his side, Mustang had begun the suicidal task of grocery shopping.

Edward left Mustang's side and Mustang replaced the chicken stock. He wasn't going to buy it out of pure curiosity because he was sure he wouldn't like stock.

"Here, I'll eat this," Ed said, returning to the shopping cart Mustang felt tricked into using. Ed dumped in an armful of assorted goods, and Mustang looked at the landslide. Most of it was clear packaged snacks.

"None of this is healthy," Mustang said flatly.

Ed gave an indifferent shrug. "I'll bear the risk."

Mustang looked up from the package of Twinkies thoughtfully, and Ed flashed a bright convincing smile. _That would not be enough._ "Hawkeye said you have to pick two healthy foods and she's right. If you get sick or die you're of no use to me." Mustang returned his attention to the soups before picking up a new can. _Chicken Noodle. _Traditional, well liked. Mustang tossed it into the cart with Ed glaring at him and to appease the boy Mustang returned eye contact. He didn't want to acknowledge the glaring, but after a long day it was more tiresome to ignore it. Mustang countered Ed's frustrated stare with one of his own and Ed balled his hands into fists.

"Fine," Ed said angrily. He reached to the side and blindly knocked two cans into the cart. Mustang looked at the two cans of corn resting on top of the Twinkies. "I'll eat corn."

"Ah, farm country food," Mustang teased. He selected another can of Chicken Noodle. "I suppose it must be different for you to be living out here," Mustang said harmlessly, before giving Ed a smile. "Feeling nostalgic for simpler things Edward?" Ed's eyes widened with the miscommunication. Mustang was making light chatter, but all Edward heard was insult. _Was it really so apparent he came from the country! Did everyone here have to know! Did all he want to eat was corn because he came from the country! _

Mustang tossed the second can of Chicken Noodle into the cart before noticing Ed's stung expression. "What?" Mustang asked dryly.

"Screw you Roy!" Ed stormed from Mustang's side.

Mustang watched Ed stomp from the market and linger about the entrance way with growing confusion. Through the large store front windows Ed was visible with his bangs blowing in the evening breeze, his hands stuffed into his armpits, and his gaze focused angrily on the ground.

Puzzled Mustang looked over at Fuery, employed as the market cashier, but Fuery gave him a small shrug.

_Great_. Mustang ignored Fuery's shrug and continued shopping. He wasn't about to starve because Edward had some demons regarding buying canned corn.

A middle aged woman entered Mustang's aisle and he stepped aside and pushed his cart further along wishing he could have done this with Hawkeye. Not only was he cooking impaired, but the small market on his corner was so used to his business that for a small sum they packed the same things into bags every Friday and all he had to do with pick them up. This food scavenger hunt, in which things he needed were mixed into long aisles with lots of things he didn't need, and didn't know how to use, was infuriating. Most everything in this market involved baking, and for a man with very little experience baking, he missed the big city which understood sometimes you just wanted to unwrap it, heat it up, and swallow.

Feeling lost, Mustang watched the new female shopper from the corner of his eye. She seemed to know what she wanted, and when she didn't she would select an item and read the back. This seemed like a strong tactic. Mustang picked up a new can of soup and read the back. _Split Pea with Ham. _He bought it.

Further up the aisle was cake mix, and as Mustang stood reading the back of a chocolate three layer cake, Edward returned. It was too cold to stand outside, and Ed sourly approached the cart with his hands deep in his pockets.

"How much longer Roy?" Ed asked impatiently.

"If you wanted to help this would be a faster process," Mustang said, glancing first at Ed's shivering body and frustrated expression, before the female shopper who looked over at them. Ed gave the side of the cart a miserable kick and the woman smiled.

"Well if it isn't the boy who knows complicated square roots right off the top of his head," she said. Ed whirled toward her voice looking completely startled. "Edward, it's nice to see you out of class," the woman said kindly. Ed looked dumb struck and didn't respond. The woman approached them carrying a small market basket. "You must be Roy Elric. My name is Mrs. Vanessa Jingkle." Mrs. Jingkle extended her hand and Mustang shook it. "Your son is very gifted Mr. Elric. He's quite a wiz in my classroom." Mrs. Jingkle gave Ed a warm smile, but Ed averted his eyes quickly.

"Thank you. That's flattering him I am sure," Mustang said, offering a polite smile.

"Oh no." Mrs. Jingkle gave a convinced shake of her head. "No, he's quite good. In fact he seems to enjoy showing up some of the other students." Mrs. Jingkle's tone changed from pure kindness to a kind scolding and Mustang felt the beginning swell of nervousness. He didn't want to have a parent-teacher-thing in the market. "But I am sure he's told you all about that."

"Yes, well…" Mustang trailed off. _Ed had not told him anything about this._ Women and their mind games. Mustang contemplated adding this to his list of Hated-Things, and thus would never have kids for, but he couldn't get the wording to work.

"In fact he's spent some time with demerits while in my classroom for just that," Mrs. Jingkle continued. "That and your son has quite a fast mouth on him." Mustang looked to Ed with hidden shock all this had been happening. _How long had Ed been in that school? And already he'd managed this much? _Ed had averted his eyes as soon as Mrs. Jingkle arrived, and had kept them off toward the back of the aisle with no intention of returning. Mustang was shocked. He'd never seen Ed more uncomfortable or unwilling to defend himself in conversation.

"He does study very hard," Mustang said. He felt compelled to say something in their defense. He had just learned Ed was a delinquent in this woman's classroom! There had to be something to argue this with. "The move has been a bit more difficult than we anticipated." He hoped this was sufficient.

"I am sure." Mrs. Jingkle looked sympathetic, and she gave Ed a second smile even while he ignored her. "Well he does have an A and I do hope he does well on his final." Mrs. Jingkle gave her basket a tiresome shift. "It was so nice to meet you Mr. Elric." Mustang gave her a smile. "Edward, see you in class." Mustang wished her a good night and apologized for Ed's silence as she left the aisle. Something about her sudden presence, and the fact she knew them and knew her way around the market, was invasive. Mustang watched her go, holding the forgotten chocolate cake box, before turning sharp eyes to Ed.

"What was that?" he whispered.

Ed dropped his eyes to his feet. "I'll be in the car." Ed left for the car, and Mustang was so mad he took what he'd acquired and rang out. He didn't care what food they had, he wanted to leave. He wanted to yell at Fullmetal the way he usually did. He wanted to put his foot down and say he was the colonel. To yell at subordinates as he saw fit to yell at subordinates. _Not_ have people walking away from him! Not have people keeping secrets from him and blowing their cover and mission! Fuery signaled he would call Hawkeye later with any information, and Mustang yanked his grocery bags off the counter.

In the end he only had five bags and managed to carry them all himself. He even managed to open the back of the car, and by this time he was really pissed. "If you don't get back here and help me…" Mustang said. His tone was threatening enough Ed climbed out of the car at once. "…you won't eat I swear it."

Ed took the bag slipping from Mustang's grasp and pushed it into the trunk. Together they packed the SUV and left. They drove in silence with Ed sitting half on his legs drawing on their fogging window. The elephant in the car was immense and Mustang didn't know where to begin with it. It didn't seem practical Ed would suddenly be so sensitive about corn. Or why, suddenly, Ed would loose all spine when talking to a random, hardly attractive, older woman. Mustang felt the severity of the topic at hand the same way he felt its allusive quality. He knew he had to talk about something; he just wasn't sure what that something was.

"So she was one of your teachers?" Mustang asked to break the ice. "You're math teacher?"

"Math. Third period," Ed said, voice flat.

"You got in trouble in her class?" Mustang took a slow right and Ed's arms jostled causing part of the array he was sketching to change to a circle with a pimple.

"Wasn't any big deal."

"She said you were given demerits. _That means it was big enough to do more than scold you_," Mustang said. He pinched his lips when he heard his tone slipping toward irritated disappointment. Ed couldn't conduct such behavior while undercover, and the thought of Ed becoming a trouble maker and creating research obstacles irritated him. _He thought of Hawkeye. _He could do better than this._ Patient. Friendly._ Having only what little Mrs. Jingkle divulged to go on Mustang tried to analyze the facts. They consisted of Ed withholding information, Ed occupying the school for only two days, and the one fact Mustang knew to be true regardless. That as a boy alone in a new school, Ed would not purposely work himself into trouble. _Patient. Friendly. Patient. Friendly. _"What happened?" Mustang asked kindly.

Ed gave a shrug. "Nothing."

Mustang took a moment to think. Edward was deliberately being very selective about what he did and didn't say. Remembering his days in private school, Mustang remembered how tough it was. He remembered demerits and they weren't fun. Several small instances came to mind and he remembered what it was like to feel all alone in a big place. "Was it embarrassing?" Mustang asked. Ed was silent. "Did she make you do something obnoxious like..." he trailed off, trying to select a good example from those he could remember.

"No, because _nothing _happened," Ed said defensively. Ed abandoned the window and turned to Mustang with an exasperated frown. "Besides, I think I found a suspect."

"What do you have?" Mustang asked, immediately serious.

"His name is Tommy and he's god damn abhorrent. So I was thinking, we could just pin it all on him. Blackmail. We could do it." Ed gave Mustang a bright grin and Mustang chuckled. "What did you get to eat by the way? I am starving."

"I don't even know," Mustang said, turning into the driveway. Ed was out of the car before Mustang parked. "Ed one of these days I am going to run some, or all of you, over." Mustang said this as a joke, but there was a hidden warning he made very clear.

Ed heard this and laughed to himself as he opened the back of the SUV. "Yeah, you wish," Ed teased, pulling groceries out. Ed managed two bags and Mustang grabbed the remaining three. "How's it going with me being allowed to call my brother?" Ed called to Mustang, leaving him behind. "Good, or not so good?" Ed struggled to unlock the door with his arms full and left it open behind him once he succeeded.

"Not so good," Mustang said. He entered through the open front door and kicked it shut. "As in off limits not good."

Ed walked to the kitchen counter and set the grocery bags down. "Yeah," Ed said softly, sighing as if he was both dreading and assuming this would be the answer. Mustang saw Ed absorb this. For a moment a quick and very sharp frown crossed Ed's expression, tightening his jaw and dropping his eyes, before it disappeared entirely, and Ed took hold of himself. "So," Ed said, tipping over his grocery bag to spill the contents. Mustang set his bags on the counter and opened one of the cabinets. "I've been waiting for it but it just hasn't come yet. Why you holding back?" Ed asked, leaning into the counter and propping his head in his hands.

"What do you mean?" Mustang asked. He was putting all canned things in the cabinet. Didn't matter what. _If it was in a can, it went here. This would be the place for things in cans._

"I mean you saw me with my pants down, quivering from a little needle, and I haven't heard one comment."

Mustang began laughing and Ed smiled. "I just haven't thought of any good ones yet," Mustang said, wadding up the empty grocery bag.

Ed gave a small hike of his eyebrows. "Well, that's nice," Ed said sarcastically. "Something to look forward to." Ed reached into the bag he had spilled and pulled out the box of cake mix.

For a moment Ed stared dumbly at the picture of the three level chocolate cake before smiling. "Hey, let's eat this." Ed held up the box.

"Be my guest." Mustang gestured to the oven while unpacking. "Cooking is not my strong suit."

"We need to do something about a washing machine too Roy," Ed said, tearing open the box. "Cause underwear doesn't grow on trees."

"Neither does socks," Mustang said, attempting to wedge a package of cookies on top of the cans. He felt slightly annoyed he was adding it to the can cabinet, but it was the only package of its type, so it had to join something. Unable to get it to fit, he opened it and began eating. "Neither does socks."

* * *

Okay so that was chapter three! As always, more to come next Friday! (Chapter Four: School Nurses).

Please review for me! and thank you to all who have left a review, it really makes my day when I see that little review sum jump. It's just exciting for me to read your reviews, and it is for us to read stories on this site.


	4. School Nurses

Another Run of Events  
Chapter Four  
_School Nurses_

- mirage -

"The campus is relatively close to the base," Mustang said, dropping his fingers in the spread width of a mile and hopping them from the school toward the base. "Five, six, seven…seven here." Mustang marked the map of the town with Hawkeye watching.

"That still doesn't give us a motive, just convenience," Hawkeye said.

Mustang considered this observation. Although conclusions like this often seemed cliché the military had taught him life was often considered to be predictable because part of humanity was predictable. In this town the largest thing was the school, the second, the military base. The lack of motive, and seeming lack of agenda, made this puzzle harder to solve than any of them would like. However, the obvious conclusion was the school, and even with nothing to support it, they had to assume it was an accurate assumption. "If not from the school, from where?" Mustang asked, looking up from the map.

Hawkeye sat leaning forward from her perch on the couch to observe everything on the coffee table and she lifted her gaze with this question before looking toward the kitchen. A dish was set down a bit too roughly, and seconds later Ed came into sight crouching down in front of the oven and cupping his hands on either side of his face to peer in.

Hawkeye gave a heavy sigh. Somehow watching Ed in a domestic setting just added pressure to the fact they were _assuming _it was the school without hard evidence. If they were to find out the school was in fact not the source, it would be horribly unfair that Edward had such a difficult part to play, and Hawkeye worried that burden would be hers.

"It can't be from anywhere else, it doesn't make sense. There's nothing else in this town," Mustang said, arguing Hawkeye's silence. "You came to that conclusion yourself Hawkeye, don't second guess yourself." _She wrote this mission after all._

"Yes," Hawkeye said softly, returning fully to the task at hand. "That is why I made the school the target sir." She gestured lamely to the map. "I am just pointing out the obvious. The fact that we need to have a motive, we need to have a reason why you would attack a small army base." Mustang was silent. They were both disturbed with the lack of cause. _Why? Why attack the base?_

"Maybe they hate the military," Ed said, wondering in from the kitchen and plopping down along side Mustang. Ed placed a palm on the map and pulled it his way to better see all the pencil markings and notes.

Mustang gave Ed an irritated stare. He was not impressed with these groundless idiotic suggestions.

Ed felt Mustang's gaze and glanced between Mustang and Hawkeye with surprise that quickly became defensive agitation. "_Maybe_…" Ed said, with heavy sarcasm. "…they just_ hate _the military." Ed repeated

"We can't list that as a reason in our report Fullmetal," Mustang snapped. "If you want to contribute you're going to have to do so intelligently."

Ed groaned and returned to the kitchen scratching his stomach with a heavy yawn. Hawkeye met Mustang's eyes and he ignored her look. He could see the gears turning and he didn't want to even acknowledge that something so flippant would be the cause of all this. _Some poor pedestrian scorned and angry._

"Hawkeye, we need clean clothes!" Ed called. He was standing in front of the oven with his hands on his hips waiting for the cake. "How am I supposed to do my laundry on this mission?"

"I apologize for the lack of a washer and dryer but we couldn't supply it in the house on our budget," Hawkeye said, sounding sympathetic. "You'll have to use the Laundromat."

"I want to go tonight Colonel!" Ed said, voice loud and demanding. Mustang didn't look up. He didn't want to see the familiar bullheaded expression he knew was painted across Fullmetal's face. It was always _I want. I want time off to return to Dublith. I want to go look for my body. I want to find the Philosopher's stone. I want to be excused from the meeting. I want Alphonse to come. I want that in my expense budget._ "Colonel, are you listening to me!" Ed asked, sounding skeptical and ready to escalate. "If I have to wear anything I am wearing tonight tomorrow I am filing a complaint with the Human Resources department in Central."

Mustang groaned and this sprouted a bright smile to Ed's face. Lazily, and with a level of disinterest, Mustang looked toward the kitchen and considered Ed's happy triumphant grin. This giddy excitement was contagious while in such a pure and earnest form, and Mustang felt the corner of his mouth lift into a tiny smile. As much as he didn't want to admit it, it was Edward's endless supply of wise-ass humor that he, at times, appreciated.

Havoc came in the front door and stopped the moment Mustang felt forming as if he'd yanked the power cord. The smile dropped from Ed's face.

"Hey," Havoc greeted, wiping his feet and strolling into the living room. "What are we doing?" Havoc looked at the collection of notes and large map on the coffee table as he assumed the remaining vacant living room chair. "Planning?" Havoc asked, adopting the sarcastic tone of a tease. "Are we planning? We'll how about this." The playful tone disappeared. "I got nothing." Havoc sunk down in his chair with a heavy sigh. "The staff is boring me to snores, no one knows anything about alchemy, and although it might _look_ easy to be a gym teacher, I think it's harder than it first seemed."

"Havoc we're only a few days in," Hawkeye said, taking the optimistic approach.

Havoc ignored this. "I am thirsty. What are we having?"

Mustang sat back in his chair. "Fullmetal! Grab Havoc and myself a drink!" he called to the kitchen. "Perhaps we're just being tested," he said, returning to the topic at hand. "Monitored to see how we'll respond." Ed appeared at his side and gave him a soda before throwing one at Havoc like he wanted the can to peg the man in the skull. Mustang ignored this. "Maybe they just want to see what they can do to our defenses."

"Test our defenses?" Hawkeye echoed thoughtfully. Mustang popped his can of soda and gave his face a rub wishing it was a beer. _Did that constitute as drinking on the job?_ Or perhaps more importantly, _would anyone here tell on him?_

"You mean like, to see how well we can keep 'em out?" Havoc asked, sounding intrigued. Havoc downed his soda and learned forward to both sit his empty soda can on the coffee table and study the map. "That's an interesting theory, but without a suspect all we can do is more research."

"But who knows how long that could take us," Mustang complained. "We wanted to be in and out in two weeks."

"Perhaps it was childish of us to set such a standard," Hawkeye said, sounding worried they might have to accept that fact, and also angered by it. She lifted the packet of staff history and flipped through a few pages. "Maybe we were jumping the gun."

"This case has a lot of attention, so you all know I can have more time approved, but I would prefer not to," Mustang said honestly, continuing a slow methodical rub on his temples. "Besides we're working around Fullmetal." Ed returned with a can of soda and leaned into the side of the couch. "It's not going to work if he no longer has the grades you set him up with Hawkeye." They all looked at Ed thoughtfully. "Fullmetal, what do you have? Anything to report?" Mustang asked.

Ed gave his head a disappointed shake. "Nothing."

"Nothing suspicious going on at school? No weird kids?" Mustang asked.

Ed gave his head another shake before turning a cold stare toward Havoc. "No_. In fact it's kind of boring,"_ Ed said, staring Havoc down. Mustang finished off his soda while deciding he would ignore whatever miscellaneous vendetta Havoc and Fullmetal might be entertaining. That had nothing to do with the mission, and he didn't have time for it. "But I've decided I am not taking soccer or any sports with any of them," Ed said angrily.

"You don't want to take any sports Edward?" Hawkeye asked, sounding surprised. Ed gave his head a quick dismissive shake, and she didn't press the issue.

"This isn't working than," Mustang said angrily. "We can't just sit around and wait for the horse to drink. We need to bring it out."

"But how sir?" Havoc asked, looking entirely confused. "How would we lure them out without giving ourselves away?"

Mustang smiled. That wasn't so hard; in fact it just required a little stealth and organization. All they had to do was…

"Attack ourselves," Hawkeye said, already at the same conclusion. Mustang felt a warm and happy sensation bloom within him when his thought came out of her mouth. It was the satisfying sensation of true intelligent uniformity. "We'll stage an attack on the base, worse and more effective then the others. We'll make them think there's another enemy here and they'll start looking for them," Hawkeye said, drawing a large circle around part of the base.

"Our current enemy will get sloppy trying to find them," Mustang said, watching Hawkeye's small feminine writing began outlining a plan over the blue zoning at the right of the base. "And when they slip up that's when." Ed was reading Hawkeye's plan as she wrote it, and Havoc gave a loud approving whistle. "That's when we'll get them," Mustang said confidently.

* * *

Ed caught the dollar the change machine spit back out. Irritably he fed it back in and waited. The dollar went in half way and stopped. Loudly, Ed called out, "I need a new dollar!"

Mustang was watching their laundry tumble in circles from in front of the large machine they had just crammed everything into. With Edward's call he looked over at the boy and watched Ed catch the dollar being spit out by the machine.

"Col-Roy? New dollar!" Ed flattened the dollar to the outside of the machine and beat it a few times with the side of his metal fist. Mustang reached into his pocket watching Ed try and feed the dollar back in.

"Forget it Ed, I have enough change," he said, glancing about the Laundromat. It was nothing but a long rectangular hall. With a door on either end the back wall held stacked machines, and the front wall a row of chairs beneath large windows. "All we need to do now is kill time," he said, retreating to one of the chairs and sitting down. Ed approached looking like a true symbol of his youth in jeans, an open hoodie, and a tee-shirt with a graphic Mustang didn't find appealing.

Ed extended the dollar with a wide smile. "I'll give you a dollar to run around the parking lot," Ed said happily.

Mustang snatched the dollar away. "No." He stuffed _his _dollar back into his pocket. "This is so stupid, having to wash our clothing like this." Ed sunk into the chair at his side and twisted in his seat to look out into the parking lot. "My god, how do normal people live." It was late, almost ten, and the parking lot was dark with nothing but a few lights illuminating the empty spots. They were the only ones there, and there was nothing but the sound of their running washing machine. "I can't take much more of this mediocrity Fullmetal," Mustang said, staring down at his lap. He had worn a casual polo, and the same slacks he had been wearing all day. He didn't bring clothing appropriate for Laundromats, and he felt agitated it was expected of him he should.

"You mean you can't take much more of people not kissing your feet," Ed said, sounding humored.

Mustang chuckled with appreciation. "Yeah that too." He looked at the boy at his side. Ed had his arms crossed over the back of the chair and his chin resting on them. "So," Mustang said, striking up conversation. "This school as nice as your old one?"

Ed's gaze was in the parking lot, but with the question Ed's brow furrowed gently. "What old one?" Ed asked with a sour tone. "This is the first one I've ever been to."

Mustang was shocked. "Your first one?"

Ed turned his head to the side and rested his cheek on his arm. "I was home schooled Roy," Ed said critically. "There were no schools near me." Ed's tone held a, _'did you really never realize this?' _tone. "Do you remember seeing any schools in Rizembool? Or anything bigger than the church?" Mustang was silent. He felt surprised he had missed something so noticeable and obvious. Quickly he tried to remember Ed's personnel file as he had read it. Ed's education was something he was immediately interested in, but rather than making note of the school names, he made note of Ed's test scores. The boy had completed the necessary years, and he had done so with flying colors.

"So you're mother taught you?" Mustang asked. The concept was maddening to him. He couldn't imagine completing his childhood entirely within his home. He had been placed in one of the finest elementary schools available, groomed in the best middle school prep school, placed with honors into his high school, and struggled, but managed, to graduate into a fine college before his entrance into the military. Removing that effort, social experience, and social growth from himself seemed vandalizing to childhood. He couldn't imagine his mother trying, and ever managing to compensate, for the wealth and professionalism he was saturated by in all of those places. Yet, Ed smiled a soft and almost dreamy smile with mention of his mother.

"Good teacher, huh?" Ed said, giving his eyebrows a playful wiggle. "She taught both Alphonse and me until…she got sick," Ed said, faltering for just a moment. "We…" Ed trailed off catching movement in his peripheral. Ed lifted his head and looked at their washing machine. In the glassy front a blob was reflected moving across the parking lot.

Ed whirled toward the window with immediate interested, and Mustang followed Ed's gaze. "What?" he asked, perking up with interest. His eyes roamed what appeared to be an empty parking lot. "Did you see something?"

Ed didn't bother answering this. He bolted up from his chair and out the Laundromat door before Mustang could manage a single word. "The hell!" Mustang yelled running to the door and ripping it open.

Outside Ed was running full speed across the parking lot and towards a student who was passing by. Mustang recognized the boy at once, the way he recognized Ed's uniform, and understood this was a student Ed might know as the boy was of similar height. Why Ed was running with such aggression kept Mustang mute, feeling almost rooted in his spot, until Ed reached the boy's side and plowed him into the asphalt.

Mustang dropped the door cursing under his breath and began a quick jog towards the boys. Ed had perched himself on top of the student's sprawled body and was beating the kid's face in with his left fist. Reducing to a quick furious walk several feet from the kids Mustang stopped short and took a calming breath. He planned to unload what he would consider a civilian earful on Ed, and he didn't want to loose control once he started. There was going to be lots of very angry, but safe for public, phrases such as: _You had better have a good excuse for this, _and, _Just what the hell do you think you are doing. _Deciding where to start, and focused to keep control Mustang inhaled to speak but felt his words stop in his mouth when he came to realize Ed was speaking to the boy he was pummeling.

"Oh, look who is so big and tough." Ed was keeping his voice down, and singing his words out in a kind mocking tone. Mustang froze complete surprise. Suddenly the situation grew from Ed loosing his temper and control, to something personal and vicious. "How does my fist taste to your mouth, hm?" Ed asked. The student was not a skilled fighter, because he was neither soldier nor alchemist, and Ed was toying with him the way a predator teases prey it's already ripped open. "You have something to say to me? Want to say it now?" The student was coughing roughly and spit a mouthful of blood onto his chin. "What's the matter Tommy? Not so eager to speak now are you." Ed chuckled. "And you have no idea how incredibly lenient I am being with you."

Tommy managed a raspy broken tone, and choked a quick disbelieving, "What?" Ed was thrilled with Tommy's tone of shock and the boy's twisted nervous expression. "I…am…" Tommy's voice gave out and Ed leaned forward, yanking Tommy's lapels up so their faces came together.

"You're what?" Ed teased, lifting his voice to an endearing octave. "What was that? What I can't hear you?"

"I am going to kick your ass!" Tommy said, becoming angry. The boy had been hit by the bus that was Ed's body and floored into the grown before taking several left jabs to his face. Now that he was coming around, with his face locked into a deep wince of pain and baffled confusion, hot anger was roaring to life.

"You couldn't kick…" Ed managed only these three words before a second student arrived and body slammed Ed off Tommy the way Ed had driven Tommy into the ground. This action startled Mustang to life and he gave his first order.

"That's enough!" Mustang stalked up to Tommy's sprawled body and looked down at the kid. This pedestrian, this Amestrian who they were enlisted to protect, was groaning after Ed's attack. The boys were a heap of squirming swinging fists. "Break it up!" Mustang barked loudly. He didn't want to touch the students he didn't know, and he felt confident Ed would pull out of the fight with his direction until he watched the second student punch Ed several times in the stomach while Ed was wiggling toward, and digging his fingers into Tommy's face. "Ed, stop this instant!" Ed broke out coughing and knocked the second student aside with his automail arm.

"Get off me!" Ed screamed at the new boy. "This is between me and him!" The students did not recognize the fighting code that soldiers did. Being raised in the military Ed understood that a fight between two people could sometimes exist only between two people, no matter how many involved parties or free hands were available. Sometimes this meant you stood two feet from your friend and watch them get their ass handed to them, or hand someone else their ass, without ever moving from your spot. It was part of the soldiers' way, it meant respecting the nature of a good fight, and respecting the need and proper place for kicking someone's ass.

When the second student pulled away from Ed holding his bleeding nose Mustang felt anger true awaken inside him. Ed was disregarding his orders, and fighting with children. "Ed, I have had enough," Mustang said, letting his voice become tight and vicious. He was seconds from knocking the boy's off so he could pull Ed up and rip him a new one. "Stop right now," his voice held nonnegotiable fierceness, "That is an order!"

"You've got a lot of balls starting this with me Elric," Tommy said, spitting blood as he spoke. He was fisting the side of Ed's shirt and wiped his free hand over his mouth before giving Ed a right hook. "Hold his freaky metal arm back for me!" Tommy called to the other student. "He likes to cheat with it!" Student number two grabbed Ed's arm and hugged it. Ed looked furious with the intervention. He tried to jerk his arm away and shook it roughly as if he could toss the boy off but this distraction gave Tommy the opportunity to give Ed a few more blows. Coughing, Ed kicked Tommy away from him with the automail leg, and Mustang intervened.

He stepped forward, left hand a tight fist of anger, and ripped Ed away from the other student with his right. Mercilessly he hauled Ed to his feet and jerked him upright so harshly Ed was staging like a drunk and completely disoriented.

The moment Ed was removed both students scrambled up and took off running. Ed tried to follow as soon as he was steady, but Mustang didn't release his grip he tightened it. Ed made it two steps, the length of his arm, and with his body tethered in place cried out, "Let go of me!"

Mustang gave Ed's arm a small deliberate shake. "Ed, you have two seconds to pull it together," he ordered.

Ed's eyes were locked on the fleeing students. They were running unstably, with Tommy spitting blood and wiping at his face. _Mustang was letting them get away, Mustang had helped them get away!_ Ed smeared at the blood running down his temple shaking with anger. What were the odds he would find them again outside of school and get the chance to say what he really thought. To get the chance to prove what he could really do when he was made to stand still and take every blow they wanted to throw in that school!

Mustang could feel Ed heaving in his arms, and he pulled Ed back a step. He wanted Ed disengaged from the moment, from the students, and he felt blindsided with Ed's actions. They seemed irrational, the way Ed sometimes lost his temper, but also deliberate, as if Ed was carefully channeling his wrath towards the students, and no matter how Mustang broke that down it didn't add up. It seemed impossible for Ed to have known any students long enough to breed this type of loathing, and equally impossible random students could have done anything of great enough substance to earn such attention. What was happening right now, in every way, and from every angle, made no sense to him. He was left with only the facts as he understood them: Ed crossed paths with students while at the Laundromat and attacked them, with unnecessary force, while unprovoked, on the clock in their mission, and with training that meant he knew better.

Hell, Mustang had personally seen to it that Ed knew better. He had pulled the boy from the sticks, he had taken him from his grandmother's well intensions, but backwater arms, and set Ed in the most populated and advanced city in Amestris. On day three, and he remembered this clearly, on day three he had ordered Ed into a boot camp training crafted to teach you patience when you did not want any.

"Why do I have to do this?" Ed had asked, slouched into Mustang's office couch. He was too short for his feet to reach the floor and Mustang was prickled with this symbol of age given innocence. "I am not that type of soldier right? Is that what alchemists do?"

Mustang remembered being at his desk, tapping his pen into the report he was working on up until Ed had shown up and thrown water on his flames. He learned quickly that Ed was considered more captivating than the other two office additions that stopped people from working: Infants and Pets. When ladies brought in their new babies, everyone wanted to take a look. When it was an animal, everyone wanted to pet it. With Fullmetal they only wanted to stare, but the effect was the same. Even Hawkeye, who stopped work for little, freely abandoned her concentration with a sort of maternal excitement to answer Ed's questions and check up on him.

"No, that's not what Alchemists do," Mustang said, giving a long and overcome sigh.

Ed was puzzled. "Then how come I have to?"

"Because." Mustang tossed his pen aside. Until Ed left, this animal petting, baby cooing nonsense continued. "A soldier needs to learn to have stamina, even when they think there is absolutely no way they can."

Afterward Mustang called the commanding drill sergeant to follow up on his newest recruit. The man's words were forever branded in Mustang's mind: _Did you call to gloat?_

Mustang was expecting the man to be more than a little angry he had placed a preteen in his drill, where soldiers years older, much stronger, and easily faster, would have to dance around Ed's weaker shorter body like their obstacle course came with a tack they could step on. He had also expected jokes, of what type he wasn't sure, or even loud cackling laughter, that he would be so stupid as to invite what he now knew was ludicrous behavior and mayhem into his otherwise loyal and capable staff. What he wasn't expecting was the sour resentment that came with only one thing: JEALOUSY.

"You calling to push it in my face?" the sergeant was smoking into the phone, with a cigar the size of a carrot lodged in his face. "Calling to see if he cried like a baby?"_ Actually, that about summed it up._

No longer certain what report was coming Mustang kept his voice calm. He didn't hint to the fact he had braced himself for the jokes and the insults. That he had expected Ed to have cried like the child he was. With confidence he asked, "How did he do?"

A puff of smoke blew into the phone as static. The cigar was ripped out, flicked, and stuffed back in. Before the sergeant slammed the phone down, with envious misery the exalted Ishvalian hero was yet again striking goal, he crammed his tobacco mouth up against the receiver and said, "He blew up half my rig, and I expect it back where it goes before the week is out."

Through the grapevine, Mustang learned what he considered to be the most reliable information. _The thoughts of the men._ Havoc said once, and only once, he believed Ed was either going to have an aneurism or piss himself, but crying, what Mustang had genuinely expected to happen, never came. The rig was design to harass a soldier in everyway they could think of, to make them familiar with what it felt like to break so they could become better at not doing so. For Ed, as Mustang learned, this successfully scared the living shit out of him, but as it seemed, Ed's true form of panic came in wild untamed power annihilating everything around him, and Mustang thought this was just fine.

That training drill was years ago. It was before Ed was certified, and before the boy had completed the list of missions under his belt. So what Mustang felt standing in a vacant Laundromat parking lot was an incredible retraction in time that made Ed a stranger.

Ed was trying to rip himself from Mustang's grasp while angrily gesturing toward the escaping boys as violently as if he were directing traffic. "You let him get away!" Ed was lost in the moment. "I had him and you let him get away!" Ed was spitting blood from his mouth just fast enough to keep his speech clear. "I should have gotten in some cheap shots. I should have busted him right in the nuts!"

Across the parking lot the students stopped, catching their breath and looking back. Tommy cupped his hands about his mouth and yelled, "You're on my shit list now Elric!" Ed was enraged by this. "You're dead!"

"I am dead," Ed sneered, repeating Tommy's words with disgust for how stupid, how absolutely out and out stupid they were. He cleared his sinuses and spit a wad off to the side. "That asshole," Ed said to himself, before raising his voice, "You asshole!"

"You think it was bad before!" Tommy yelled, sharing a laugh with the boy recovering with him. "I'll see you in school!"

"I hope I broke your nose!" Ed screamed. Ed lurched forward, in one last attempt to break free. Mustang felt startled with the yank to his arm. He was speechless by how easily the boys' events were carrying on with him standing there. The students were unconcerned with him, and for the moment so was Ed. They had wrapped themselves in an adolescent bubble Mustang didn't think Ed was capable of slipping into because he seemed too corrupted in his youth to partake. _Was it really so easy to become a kid again? Did all it take was a petty squabble?_

"Get back here and I'll bust your teeth right out!" Ed screamed.

Mustang felt the paralyzing severe lapse of parental skill that had numbed him give way as quickly, and with as much force, as an explosion when Ed threatened undeserving children who didn't stand a chance in comparison. He jerked Ed back by the arm and spun Ed to face him.

Ed went stiff with surprise when he was physically relocated and all attention was ripped off Tommy and moved to Mustang's angry expression.

"Ed, you can thank whatever god you prey to we're not back on base," Mustang said, lowering his voice to a cold furious tone.

Ed's expression was stricken with surprise. He felt blindsided and assaulted with friendly fire. Raising his eyebrows with extreme exaggeration he yelled, "What the hell is you're problem Roy!"

These words lit a fire under Mustang and he threw a scolding finger into Ed's damaged face. "You are the one who is out of line!" Mustang looked up but the boys had disappeared. Ed slumped forward, resting his single hand on his knee and spitting to the pavement. "What the hell was that all about?" Mustang asked, annoyed he couldn't so much as guess.

"He punched me in the stomach," Ed complained, groaning in his throat.

Mustang considered Ed critically. "You're bleeding everywhere," he said with disgust. Ed's school uniform had not faired well, and the white dress shirt showed the filth from the asphalt and bit of grass Ed had rolled in. "They didn't know how to respect a fight," Ed said, rubbing at his stomach with the metal hand.

Mustang snatched Ed's arm and began a fast walk back the car. He wasn't sympathetic to this. "I am livid," he said angrily. Ed was stumbling with his pace.

"Stop pulling so hard," Ed complained.

Mustang went to the passenger side door and opened it with Ed smearing his flesh hand through the blood on his face and wiping it down the chest of his shirt. Wordlessly Ed climbed into the car looking thankful for a chance to rest and sit down. He collapsed into his seat and pinched his nose to stop the bleeding. Mustang slammed the door in Ed's face, and the action wasn't lost on Ed. He jumped with a bit of unease and tightened his expression into a defensive sulk.

Mustang called Havoc and ordered the second lieutenant to finish his laundry wondering why this didn't occur to him sooner. Free, he climbed into the car and slammed his own door. Ed looked over with this but wisely kept quiet.

The streets were vacant of traffic at this hour, and even though luxurious, the rural setting had the song of crickets. With a flat and incredibly pissed expression Mustang drove calmly. He was going to address what happened, in the form of a discussion in which he clearly told Ed how displeased he was, and they both knew this. In good faith Hawkeye had once told him that Ed hated anticipating his lectures. She said Ed shared this with her in conversation, and she told him in good faith so he could, if possible, accommodate the small boy he had pulled into the service so as not to unnecessarily torture him. He never told Hawkeye those days she found Ed sitting outside his office waiting, he did it on purpose. He knew Ed couldn't stand the anticipation, it was written across his face, rusting every mannerism with anxiety, and so he used it as a weapon when he was so pissed he didn't even want to look at the boy.

Driving comfortably, with his jaw tight with anger, Ed's familiarity with their relationship told him what was coming, and he was glaring at the dashboard feeling the seconds tick bye. Mustang was glad anticipation made Ed uncomfortable, and waited with confidence. Being forced to wait was often a verbal lubricant for Ed. He couldn't resist defending himself, even before he was accused. Mustang was waiting for Ed's favorites: _I didn't (blank) as much as you say I did. I did exactly what (blank) could happen. I was caught off guard and had to (blank). I think most people would agree with (blank)._

Tonight, as if to make things worse, Ed was keeping silent, and Mustang felt the blow of another common routine destroyed. With their house coming into sight and not a single word shared between them he broke the silence. He didn't feel he had to wait Ed out to ream him out, and he was growing incredibly annoyed with the blooming change in behavior.

"Are you going to tell me who that was?" Mustang asked angrily.

Ed's face was almost in his lap, with both hands holding his face and bloody nose. "Kid from school," Ed said, voice raspy.

"Really," Mustang said, feigning surprise. "Now that you mention it, I think I did recognize the uniform." Ed didn't like sarcasm when he knew he was in the dog house, and huffed an angry sound. "I wonder if you knew him."

"Yeah, I was saying hello," Ed said, voice smug and sarcastic. "A nice little, how-do-you-do."

Mustang felt his patience tighten uncomfortably, and he locked his grip on the steering wheel. "When we get home, you and I are having a long talk," he said, keeping a controlled tone of anger.

"When we get home, you and I aren't doing anything," Ed snapped, sitting up with both hands pinching and cupping his nose. "I am not on the clock so I can do what I like!"

Mustang was flabbergasted. He turned to Ed with an appalled expression of shock and Ed thrust an accusatory blood metal finger at him.

"You are too on the clock!" He hit the gas petal and pulled them into the driveway with unnecessary acceleration, but Ed didn't care. "And when you are on the clock, or in my presence, you will acknowledge the chain of command!" Ed opened the passenger side door and climbed out with the car rolling into place. Mustang killed the engine watching Ed limp to the front door holding his jaw.

Ed stopped on the front step and was fishing his key from his pocket with wet fingers and a nose that wouldn't stop running. Mustang did not feel as if he had to chase to win this race, so he climbed out slamming his car door, and slamming Ed's which was left open. Then he began a controlled but powerful approach, and Ed couldn't take it. He gave the front door a swift kick and backed away from the knob making broken uneasy eye contact.

"Fine, I acknowledge it!" Ed said, gesturing angrily to the door wanting it unlocked.

Mustang pulled the keys from his pocket. "I am not impressed with your behavior." He unlocked the door and Ed shoved his way in.

"I am not impressed with my behavior," Ed spat, stomping to the kitchen.

Mustang locked the door and followed, feeling relatively reassured with this single level headed statement in a sea of nonsense. "Ed, I think we need to talk," Mustang said, pausing in the kitchen doorway. His tone told Ed he thought they needed to talk about more than just blow-up at a Laundromat.

"Talk about what?" Ed sounded disgusted, and had also come to a halt in the kitchen, trying to decide what to do first. Hawkeye had set a tissue box on the counter, and Ed grabbed the white sail protruding from it but it absorbed the blood in his palm and became a soggy lump. With the automail hand Ed grabbed a new one, trying to shake the red wad off his first hand, but the automail faired worse and the tissue became wet and clung to the metal.

"Ed, that's disgusting," Mustang said flatly.

Ed fumed. He slapped his bloody hands to his chest and smeared them downward wiping off the tissue shreds. "Well thank you for that impressive observation!" Ed snapped, attacking the box with the metal hand. Angry Ed's concentration was sloppy and two metal fingers went right through the flimsy cardboard side. This was all Mustang needed to see, he stepped in and swung a chair from their modest breakfast table to the counter were Ed stood.

"Sit down."

"Why are we buying such cheap tissues!" Ed lifted his fist to crush the tissue box coated in bloody fingerprints, when Mustang intercepted. He shielded the box with a hand, as if it were hot, and pointed to the chair.

"Sit down, I've had enough." He yanked out a few tissues and handed them to Ed while collecting a wad of his own. "Sit down and tip your head back."

Ed stepped back and plopped into the chair. Immediately he began wiping his face, but this action was broken with surprise and Ed looked up seeming nonplussed, as if he'd misheard. Roy gave this glance a crooked smile that was as much humored with his own words as it was still angry with everything else. This request was a bit out of character for him, and Ed's gaze said so. "Yes I know," he confessed. He gave Ed's automail shoulder a careless, but controlled shove to knock Ed flush to the back of the chair, and Ed looked up.

"My forehead bleeds a lot," Ed said miserably, hanging onto his nose with a collection of tissues which looked more like a blood smeared wasps nest. The slice to Ed's forehead was small, over the end of his eyebrow and temple, but leaking heavily. Beneath this Ed's nose was bleeding and his lip was split. There were blows to his face, that was obvious, but they weren't the crushing blows of soldier finality, they were the weak, but meaningful, slugs from children. Ed had been slugged, he had not been beaten by an adult.

"Your forehead is leaking like a sieve," Roy said, pressing his tissues to the drizzle to stop its flow downward to Ed's left eye. It was growing puffy, having taken some of the aim, but Ed was keeping it clean.

"It always does if it's cut like that." Ed reached up and pressed his tissues to the cut and Roy considered Ed's expression. Ed looked as if he had gone face first into a bucket of red paint, and the mix of saliva and blood made Ed's lips and chin look slick ruby lipstick. Again, Roy spoke what came to mind.

"This is disgusting."

"I hate nose bleeds because I feel like I can smell bone." Ed tipped his chin a bit higher. "Has my nose stopped?"

Roy grasped Ed's chin and tiled his head to the side. Ed's nostrils looked wet but before it seemed a faucet and for the moment it had at least slowed enough to blend into everything else. "I am not convinced," Roy said, plucking a few clean tissues and wiping Ed's nose.

Ed jerked his head to the side, shaking it with natural offense, and said quickly, "It's fine Roy." Ed snatched the tissues from Roy's hand and pressed them to his nose. "It's just a little blood anyway."

Roy turned his gaze to Ed's temple and lifted the wad he had pressed to the cut. It was still wet and ready to leak. Carefully he folded the tissue ball in on itself while keeping it pressed to the slice and Ed tried to move his head from the pressure. Roy stopped this with a careful grasp of Ed's chin and Ed stiffened.

"What is this?" Ed asked, teasing with words that sounded more confused than anything else. "You taking care of me?"

Roy considered this. Ed's tone made this accusatory, but somehow he was comfortable with that accusation. "Yes," he said simply. "Keep holding your nose."

He left for the kitchen sink. Mission 101 placed medical provisions near every sink. There was no one room, there was no one sink, it was every sink, and no one, no matter how dense, struggled in a time of need to remember where a sink was.

Ed watched Roy toss the blood soaked tissues he held onto the counter and open the cabinets above the sink. There was a large white bin with provisions they might need and Roy took it down and opened it.

"What, are you serious?" Ed asked, with disbelief. Somehow the Colonel's casual notion of care giving was invading and awoke some of the dormant awkwardness Ed only associated with missing limbs and bed rest. He watched Roy rip open a package of cotton balls and wet a few with alcohol coming to realize he didn't want anyone thinking they could take care of him, but he wasn't sure how to get out of this chair. _Mustang seemed pretty determined. _"It's only a little blood Roy, it's not even a big deal." Ed slid to the edge of the seat, he suddenly wanted to stand.

"Considering how we landed ourselves here, I wouldn't get out of that chair if I were you," Roy said, sounding calm, but there was powerful anger beneath that kind sentence. With wet cotton balls he approached Ed who had stalled out ready to stand. "I am not asking much considering the lecture you know you deserve."

"For that little scuffle?" Ed teased, forcing an innocent smile. "Who even remembers it."

Roy pressed the dripping cotton ball to Ed's forehead cut and Ed was motionless. "Keep holding your nose," Roy said. Ed returned the tissues to his nose and pinched firmly. Letting himself relax he closed his eyes. Roy was surprisingly gentle and dabbed the cotton ball at the same speed and with the same delicate handling Pinako had used to dab ointments over the automail wires that were at one time feeding into open flesh. Roy wiped the blood off Ed's skin, streaking it clean and leaving behind the wet sheen of the alcohol so he could examine the inch long slice. In a kind gesture he brushed Ed's bangs away from it, and tilted the boy's head to the light. "Does that hurt?" he asked.

Ed opened his eyes with his gaze cast to the side, and muttered a soft, "stings a bit."

Roy placed a gauze pad over the cut and then nudged Ed's hand off his nose. "Roy?" Ed asked giving a cautious sniffle as they both waited to see if he was still bleeding. "Can I call Alphonse?"

Roy lifted his gaze to Ed's eyes, and they were filled with intensity. Authorizing the call was a bad idea, and Ed could sense this. Staring up at the almost stoic face of his commanding officer he could hear the answer clearly. It was denial. It was denial because it was against military protocol, something as basic as common sense, and more of what Ed didn't want to acknowledge: that Roy took being a leader very serious, and that he prized their safety even higher.

"I'll be quick," Ed said, offering this as a truce.

Roy lowered the cotton ball from Ed's cut. The adult world often kept you from having to verbalize known variables when they were hard to say, because two adults could be on the same page when the situation was understood. Ed had taken things which were understood, and required they still be spoken aloud in some form of age driven need to be absolutely certain.

Ed wanted to hear the answer as much as he was dreading it, and Roy felt himself hanging in the precipice that suggested he answer. He didn't have to, and there was history of him ignoring questions he wasn't going to entertain. There was also history of him surprising Ed with approval when Ed was certain he was going to be denied. Hawkeye called these inconsistencies. She had addressed these with him the second week of Ed's instatement. She found the fact he gave the cafeteria no rules regarding Ed's ability to order certain foods and beverages of adult types and quantities in poor judgment. He told her what he told Maes, "I am his commanding officer, end me there." He had not agreed to give more, and Ed had not agreed to take more. From a selfish perspective he was not going to infringe upon his liberties by changing the root cause of his decision making: he would give orders when he saw fit to give orders. As long as Ed had the intelligence to obediently follow orders given, he wanted to extract himself from all else as much as possible. Edward's rearing was not his burden.

Roy closed the cotton ball into his fist and gave it a squeeze. "Why is everything so complicated Fullmetal?" he asked, a gentle smile breaking out.

Ed, who had always been non the wiser to much of what was politically happening in the office, paused with a bit of confusion before repeating himself. "I'll be quick."

"You know why I can't." He had always been straight with the boy. _Always._

Ed was crushed with this. He dropped his gaze and swallowed heavily to compose himself. There was honesty in wanting to call your brother after a fight, but this didn't change the rules of the game.

Ed managed a weak smile of his own and tried to look up. What happened was only a glance, too short for any real eye contact, and with a fragile tone struggling to jest Ed said, "Even if I say please?" He pushed himself up, stepping free of the chair as if sitting still with that question hanging in the air was too much for him.

Roy tossed the cotton ball onto the counter with the wadded tissues. "You'll tough it out," he said kindly. Ed cracked bitter half smile. _What was the alternative? _"You know you can," Roy said calmly. "Just like you know why I can't."

Miles from Central, separated from every comfort item and outside of his element, Ed was struggling to coexist with peers who might buy into the shaky façade they have crafted for only a few days at best. They never said this would be easy, and Roy was sympathetic on the same human level he expected Ed to perform.

Ed forced a quick shrug, trying to end the topic. Wearing his soiled and bloody school uniform his entire demeanor was different, and Roy was hoping it was the late hour and kitchen lighting that made Ed seem incredibly small and susceptible to him.

"Let's…try and keep this professional," he said softly.

Ed stiffened and wiped his nose on the back of his arm. "Professional," Ed repeated, managing another fleeting beat of eye contact. "Gotcha." Ed wiped the back of his arm on the side of his shirt and pants. "The calls would show the military code, they can be traced, I know, it's jeopardizing." There was a foundation of honesty between they, and they both respected it. Roy had maintained this from day one, no matter how cruel it was, and Ed had imitated. To those who served under him loyally, Roy offered what he considered the most valuable part of himself: Well Decided Honestly. It was clarity in the matter, and the chivalry to be honest with it. _Ed was no exception._

Ed went to the counter and quickly grabbed the few first aid supplies Roy had emptied from the bin and left unused. He tossed them haphazardly back inside, making an effort to clean up without so much as noticing the bloody handprints on the counter and gore frosted tissue box. "I am going to bed." Ed flattened his automail palm on top of the first aid supplies and pressed them deeper into the box to guarantee everything was packed up. "Okay so, I guess thanks for taking care of me and all that."

Roy remained along side the empty chair as Ed limped his way from the room. He was left with the first aid supplies in disarray, the weight of the symbolic chair, and the stamping of Ed's red crayon thin fingers about the counter top, but all he could remember was Hawkeye complaining about how he would not give the cafeteria orders to limit Ed's access to coffee and energizing herbal tonics. Hawkeye was more concerned with Ed drinking coffee that she was with him handling automatic weapons. She worried Ed's could not manage his diet when offered unlimited access to adult items, but did not want to deny him, what she passionately referred to as, wonderful guns.

To the empty room Roy muttered, "I should have told her she was inconsistent." He couldn't shake the feeling he had left the lobby chair when he should have been in it, and the unfamiliar and seemingly irrational desire he had to follow Ed, and speak further, felt parasitical. The only adjective he could find was relentless, and the only verb was tugging. Since when was his responsibility born in this way. Smug to objective reasoning and growing first in his chest and traveling in an aching empathetic path to his mind to stir him into motion.

He added it to the list. Number Eight: Tugging, for which there is no explanation.

* * *

Roy rolled over and woke well before he should have. With the room still dark and night still well in play the first thought that came to him was confusion over his own consciousness. Still unfamiliar with the sounds of the house and forced to sleep on the pathetic cardboard they were calling a mattress he pulled the comforter higher and began to let himself drift back to sleep when he heard something. It was a muffled and brief squeak. It wasn't architectural or weather related, and Roy lifted his head and strained to listen. It was possibly a pipe, or vegetation against the window, and he had no intention of getting up unless he had to.

When it came again Roy recognized its core for what it was: human. He snatched his gun and glove off the end table and pressed his shoulder to the woodwork of his door in a state of heightened awareness. The sound was distant, and he slid the gun barrel into the crack of the door and molding and opened it a few inches.

The hallway was black, and with the gun ready he began wiggling into his ammunition glove before stopping when he heard the sound again. This third and final time he truly recognized it for what it was: Fullmetal.

With frazzled nerves he tossed the gun back to his bed. He left for Ed's room wearing his glove and raking his free hand through his hair until it lifted up as if with electricity. He gave Ed's door a single demanding wrap of his knuckles and opened it. He stuck his head in with sleepy agitation and in a flat tone sitting on the razor's edge of anger he asked, "Do you know what time it is?"

He was expected to find the boy awake and doing all sorts of something in his room, but Ed was nothing but a moving lump of blankets in his bed. For a brief second, one that left as quickly as it came, Roy felt a flare of panic he was invading while Ed was doing something private, before realizing he didn't give a shit how private it was at this hour. "Fullmetal, I am running on a short fuse," he confessed. The first time had used this line Ed had asked him if that was a Flame Alchemist joke, and he had laughed harder than he had expected.

Ed didn't answer, with argument or self defense, and Roy realized dumbly, that Ed was sleeping and he was threatening a near empty room. Critically he stared at what looked to be the most miserably restless sleep he'd ever witnessed and considered intervening. Ed was wiggling inside his blankets, sometimes only slightly, as if twitching, and sometimes becoming extreme as if kicking or squirming. Ed was perfectly silent as he did this. Even the sound of his breathing which Roy had to assume was rough with the all the activity was mute, and that was what made it disturbing. More so then the visual, it was the lack of audio that had him waking slowly and surpassing curiosity for concern.

Roy left the door and stepped into the room. He raised his voice slightly and said, "Ed?" Ed was nothing but a hill in the center of his bed and Roy approached it slowly rubbing his hand up his face feeling tormented. The fact he was even in a situation where he could be woken up and engaged in activity when he needed to be sleeping was unacceptable to him. "Ed, this can't be how you sleep." He hoped it wasn't the way the boy slept, _and god help him if he hadn't changed out of his clothes._

Ed muffled the sound that had woken Roy to begin with, and so close to the bed, it was much louder than it was from the other bedroom. It was immediately recognizable the way universal human sounds were identifiable. It was that of suffering, be it physical or emotional, it was a sharp whining cry that came so quick it could have been a branch dragging down a glass window pane and screeching. Roy was shocked, and stood comatose, until Ed strangled out a second run of the same sound.

Roy reached for the lump of Ed's body. Ed had begun talking inside the blankets, and his words were smothered phrases in a needy tone peppered with the word Alphonse. Roy lowered his hand to what he believed to be Ed's shoulder and hesitated, he couldn't be certain where Ed was and what he was actually going to grab.

Ed cried out a quick and clearly understandable, "No!" followed by an even faster, "Don't leave me Al!" and Roy felt his hand drop to Ed's body, as if possessed. His fist closed around the solidarity beneath his palm and he shook forcefully.

"Ed, you're dreaming," he said sternly. War didn't end when soldiers slept, and Roy had seen grown men scream in their sleep. "Ed!" he snapped, increasing his strength and speed to something aggressive. "Wake up!"

Ed's manner of squirming changed quickly to struggling within his blankets and Roy let go. Ed was kicking and shoving free in a frenzy of motion. Roy helped pull the comforter away and Ed uprooted quickly with his tee shirt and boxers twisted about him and drenched in sweat.

Ed was disoriented waking so abruptly and unnaturally. Blinking quickly as his eyes came to adjust, he was looking frantically about the room as if expecting whatever woke him to still be exploding. "What!" Ed cried, piecing together nothing was on fire. "What! What happened!" Ed realized Roy was in front of him and jerked back, pawing at his forehead and temples where his bangs had become damp and sticky. "What? Why are you in here? What's wrong?" Ed demanded, breathless from his activity. Roy went to answer, but Ed was evaluating things quickly and took notice of the ammunition glove. Immediately Ed's expression changed to one of significant focus and panic. "Shit," Ed whispered, clapping his hands for alchemy.

Roy stopped this at once. He grabbed Ed's wrists and kept Ed's palms flush together to stall the alchemy. This action startled Ed badly and his eyes jumped up locking their gaze. Slowly, in a low and controlled voice Roy said, "You had a nightmare—were having a nightmare." He shook his head in explanation nothing additional was wrong. They were not under attack. He was not looking for Ed's bed or nightstand to transmute into a weapon when they needed to return to sleeping. Ed's wide eyes widened a bit further with understanding and Roy released his grip and stepped back. "You were having a bad dream." Ed was panting and he slowly dropped his hands without completing the transmutation.

"I was?" Ed asked, sounding stunned. He pet his automail hand down his chest in an investigatory fashion as if he could be injured, and began correcting his tee shirt. Ed's bottom lip was fat from his cut, but otherwise the rest of his face had recovered. "Oh," Ed managed, beginning to look embarrassed. "I didn't mean to wake you." Ed pulled his comforter back to himself and lost eye contact. "Sorry if I woke you." His skin was shimmering with his sweat and the top of his white tee shirt was becoming transparent. "Go back to bed, I am fine."

Roy was motionless. He had been drawn in, feeling as if a new event had blossomed, and he was unsure if it could be left so suddenly. _Was he supposed to do something?_

Ed was tucking himself back into bed. "It's fine Roy, I don't remember it." Ed dragged a hand down his face and gave a heavy sniffle before lying down with his back to Roy. "I am going to sleep." Roy looked to the door. Ed was indicating he leave, and Roy felt a sense of uselessness sweep over him. "Shut the door behind you, okay?" Ed asked softly.

"Okay," Roy said, standing motionless for another long moment in silence. Ed didn't acknowledge this, and Roy left and shut the door.

* * *

"Point!" Havoc yelled, raising his arm. Today's game was basketball and directly after the point the ball moved to the other team and the kids were working their way down the other side of the court. "You look like hell," Havoc said under his breath. He was perched on the bleachers to oversee the game, and three down Ed sat hunched forward and alone. "What happened to you?"

Ed was watching the game with an expression worthy of the undead. "No sleep," Ed said flatly. Ed was pale, his bottom lip slightly swollen, both eyes puffy, and he looked absolutely miserable. "Feel fine," Ed said dully.

"Don't bullshit me," Havoc said kindly. He slid down to the bleacher below him, and with only two separating them he caught Ed shrugging his shoulders inward with disgust. "You know what Ed, I think you look sick," Havoc said. He had never been the sharpest tool in the shed, but he knew what a sick person looked like. "I think you should go to the nurse." Havoc looked at Ed's flesh arm. In a few places it was scraped and there was a bruise as if Ed had been shoved around.

"_Yeah,_" Ed said sarcastically, giving a snort. "I am _not _going to the nurse."

On base soldiers had the option of going to 'The Doc' but no one did that. It was more acceptable to step outside, hurl, and then keep on going, then to drag your ass in like a woman. Here in school this was not the case. The nurse was a safe option which could get you out of class, and even get you home.

"I'll walk you," Havoc offered. Ed lifted his gaze longingly toward the exit of the gym. Leaving the gym meant leaving one of the classes he hated the most. It was worse than his academic classes teaching toddler concepts with kids who had circles of friends and lab partners already selected. It was worse than the professors who gave him funny looks, or the one who asked him if he was cheating and then had him recite square roots to prove he wasn't. Being called a liar and even a fraud was somehow easier than being called a loser. The temptation of possible respite from gym was strong, but leaving the gym also meant leaving the mission like a sick person. It was like going to The Doc, knowing for the next week every time your male co-workers didn't like your comments they would accuse you of having your period, and then laugh shamelessly at their own joke. So leaving the gym meant respite, but only temporary, and for all Ed knew, something worse following that bit of relief. At least staying put he knew the routine, and he was where the mission required he be.

Havoc followed Ed's gaze to the gym door. "You won't miss much," he reassured. From the locker room exit a few boys emerged laughing amongst each other and following them was Tommy. Havoc felt his optimism drop on sight of the boy. "You know Ed, whatever you have going on with Tommy has got to stop." Tommy was mid sentence when he caught sight of Ed, and the two boys locked each other in a dark glare of hate. Yet somehow Tommy seemed to have grown stronger and Ed no longer seemed as quick with his comebacks, or revved into the first move. "Let's go," Havoc said, standing for a stretch. He kept his tone encouraging until he noticed Ed's lack of movement. "Let's go, I am walking you to the nurse," Havoc said, adopting a firmer tone of urgency.

Ed gave a heavy sigh. He dropped his gaze to the gym floor and let his shoulders sink lower because they felt so heavy. "Leave me alone Havoc."

Ed's tone held no malice, and not even the slightest hint of irritation. Instead it was quiet, and Havoc felt the level of surrender he heard, intentional or not, was crafting this statement into a beg like Ed were a beaten dog.

Havoc couldn't take it. "Look Ed, I shouldn't have made you run. I feel terrible." He climbed down the bleachers walking right past Ed and hopped to the floor. "I really do." He gave the boy a sloppy grin but Ed did not look moved.

Ed lifted his gaze as if it were as heavy and achy as his body. "That isn't about that," Ed said miserably. "Just let me be."

Havoc felt disgusted, and sick to his stomach with just the thought of abandoning the signs he knew were before him. Additionally, the fact he was not one to usually see signs, and was often far worse at diagnosing them correctly, had him worried things were far more serious than he knew considering he felt he could identify the situation. Even though it was at first rough on base when Ed first started, the guys considered Ed cool enough to be around, and the kid's outrageous temper for cracks on his height was hysterical. With Ed sitting like a stump surrounded by laughing and playing children, it was hard to understand just why no one wanted to be Ed's friend.

"I hate seeing you like this Ed," Havoc said. Ed was silent. "Don't think I don't know what's going on here. Even if no one else does, I know." Ed's flesh hand began fidgeting with two of the automail fingers, but Ed's gaze was lost below his bangs."I am not trying to rub it in your face." Havoc took a step closer and Ed stiffened as if waiting to be struck. "You can come to me if you need anything, you know?" Havoc dropped a hand onto Ed's shoulder but Ed slapped it off immediately.

"I feel sick." Ed stood at once. "I'll be in the nurse's office." Without making eye contact Ed stuffed his hands into his pockets and started a brisk walk across the gym. Havoc watched Ed leave feeling brushed aside, and strangely less motivated to take action that he felt a moment ago. He didn't want to invade, it wasn't really his place, and Ed seemed capable of taking care of himself. Hell, when you came right down to it, Ed outranked him.

With Ed crossing under the far basketball hoop a few of the children noticed he was leaving. The students playing were indifferent and acknowledged with short glances before returning to the game. Havoc saw this happen and immediately looked to Tommy. The boy was standing along side the court waiting for his chance to play with a wide smug grin. Like the other students Tommy saw Ed leaving the chaperoned gym environment, and unlike the other children, saw this as a delightful opportunity. Tommy gave a nod to the tall boy lingering alongside the gym door and the boy turned to follow Ed.

"Hey!" Havoc yelled, stopping the boy dead in his tracks. He crossed the court in a fast purposeful walk, and threw an aggressive point toward the bleachers he was abandoning. "You sit down, and don't you move for the rest of class," he said, fixing a knowing gaze on the startled boy. The kid high tailed it to the bleachers as if he'd been caught in the act of murder, and Havoc left the gym with a quick, and fierce, glance toward Tommy. He needed the kids to behave while he as gone.

Exiting the gym the hall went only thirty feet before taking a left for a stretch almost the length of the building. Further ahead shrouded in fine wood of the school walls, with a reflection of himself pooled about his sneakers in the buffed floor, Ed was still in his gym clothing and slowly making his way along.

Havoc broke into a jog to catch up, and smiled at Ed's puzzled glance. "Hey," Havoc said kindly. "You left without me."

"What are you doing?" Ed asked angrily. "You belong doing your job back in the gym."

Havoc had to laugh, and Ed looked further annoyed with the carefree attitude. "Since when have I ever cared about doing my job?" Neither of them took this sentence seriously.

"When Mustang wants to know why you weren't at your post, it's not going to be my god damn fault," Ed said.

Havoc gave an elaborate and unconcerned shrug, and said, "I am comfortable with that." Then they walked in silence until they reached the second four way intersection. The school was massive, and failed to establish any basic geographic shape internally. Instead, everything was lavishly furnished like the inside of a grand hotel. At this intersection Ed stopped, and glanced in all directions before hesitating. "I remembered the way to the nurse's office right away," Havoc said, guiding them to the right. Ed shied away from Havoc's brief touch as they turned, and they both ignored it. "She's got great hooters, small but plump."

Havoc opened the sixth door in hall E, and there in the white room, seated at the desk before a small green curtained doorway, was the nurse. She looked up with a kind smile, wearing business professional clothing and nothing but a single red cross pin identifying her role.

"Hey Darleen," Havoc said, pushing Ed in when Ed hesitated in the doorway. The sudden abandonment of fine mahogany and cherry wood was intense. The lobby of the nurse's office had a white linoleum floor, white walls and only a few waiting chairs. It was like stepping from a private industry suite to a government industrial closet. "This little guy feels sick," Havoc said. Ed jerked his elbow back into whatever part of Havoc stood behind him, and it hit gut. "I mean," Havoc gave a playful cough, "this is Edward."

Darleen flipped open the book on her desk. "All right Edward, what's your last name?" she asked, lifting a pen.

Ed approached her desk and stopped obediently. "E-L-R-I-C."

Along side her desk the nurse had a simple chair and she gestured to it as she finished recording their arrival. Ed took a seat and Havoc fell silent. In office he could technically report to Ed, so it was weird to have Ed leading so poorly there were large gaps even he felt inclined to fill. _Since when did the Indians have to make chief decisions?_

"All right Edward, let's check your temperature," Darleen said, pulling a thermometer from her drawer and shaking it in waving fashion. Ed extended a hand and Darleen swiveled to face hi in her desk chair and handed it over with a smile. "Just put it under your tongue."

Ed slipped the thermometer into his mouth and closed his eyes to wait. Darleen considered Ed thoughtfully while he was unobservant and Havoc noticed. Along with her small and perky breasts she seemed to have a naturally empathic trait and it kept her in good standing with the other faculty members and students. Waiting patiently for Ed's thermometer to read she seemed satisfied with him, at least for the moment, and turned her attention to Havoc. He felt a spike of resentment toward the colonel. _If she turned out to be the one and he had to leave her in this school…_

"So James, are we as demanding as your last school?" Darleen asked, sounding genuinely interested.

Havoc stepped back and plopped into one of the four waiting chairs on the back wall. "It's really a fantastic facility." Hawkeye had to lie like crazy when she made up his credentials just to get him in. "And the coach says the job could really be for me, but I got a sweet heart back home." The plan allowed him to be a transfer physical education teacher, so if they needed to, they could pull him out without much suspicion and use him somewhere else. _Oh, how Hawkeye loved to multitask. _"I really miss her, but at the same time, it's nice to have a break where I am on my own." Darleen seemed captivated by these more whimsical statements and he had her pegged as a romantic. "I can see the world more clearly." She smiled. Havoc glanced at Ed, but Ed hadn't moved and seemed content to simply rest.

"Are you that far away?" Darleen asked.

"Hours. I even have to compensate for the time difference."

Darleen's expression was just caving sympathetic when two students entered. The wildly inconsistent height of children made Havoc unable to approximate their age. It was one thing if they were all in one class and you could easily see who was short and who was tall, but wondering around freely they were all nothing but alcohol-forbidden minors.

Both boys complained of headaches and Darleen left through the green curtain to get them some aspirin. This left a small silent room with two students, Ed, and one gym teacher the new boys had not yet noticed. With Havoc in the back, and only in their peripheral, their eyes immediately moved to the bold intensity of the automail leg which was visible from the thigh of Ed's shorts to the sneaker at the bottom. It was as distracting as a leg coated in glitter.

After a minute of staring the first boy nudged the second and he snickered. Ed opened his eyes with a deliberate, and clearly understood, dull glare of hate. The students were not intimidated with the gym uniform, thermometer, and dagger eyes. "Hey, I've heard about you," the first boy whispered. "I didn't think I'd get to see you up close." Ed blinked slowly with growing anger. "You're not in my grade, but I still heard all about you."

"Yeah we heard what happened," the second boy whispered. "We heard how what's left of your flesh leg is inside of the metal rotting." Ed's expression tightened with disgust but Havoc was flabbergasted. "How come they let you come to school like that?" It was impossible to tell how much of this was teasing, and how much of it was rude ignorance. "We're not saying it's weird," the first student said, with the second shaking his head. "We just want to know how your arm is alive in there. We heard all about-"

"Hey!" Havoc snapped. Both boys startled so badly they hopped forward and spun around as if Havoc's voice were a detonating bomb. "What class are you two in?" Havoc demanded angrily. The boys looked stunned and guilt ridden a teacher witnessed what little of their conversation was managed. They shook their heads with their jaws on the floor. "Don't know?" Havoc asked sarcastically. "Don't remember?" The first boy kept shaking his head. "Maybe I should speak with them, what do you think?"

Darleen returned and none the wiser sweetly defused the situation. She handed both boys their aspirin and sent them on their way before taking Ed's thermometer from his mouth. With her preoccupied Ed gave Havoc a dark look. The message was clear: _I can take care of myself!_

Havoc felt a swell of defensive irritation rise with Ed's expression. He felt he had waited before he stepped in, and also that he hadn't done anything so drastic he should take any heat for it. Ed didn't seem to be in shape enough to fight his own battles, and Havoc didn't understand how this equation meant those battles just went ignored.

"Edward," Darleen said, reading the thermometer with a growing look of concern. "Do you feel sick, honey?" In a quick, seeming instinctive move, she laid a hand on Ed's forehead and waited only a moment before resting the back of her knuckles to his cheek. Ed looked up at her with puzzled confusion. "Your temperature is reading very high. Is there someone you can call to come and pick you up?" she asked, brushing the green curtain aside and stepping back into the adjoining room. Havoc could see the wall length counter of supplies she was accessing and a few cots.

Ed looked to the phone in thought. _Come and get him?_ Technically that would have been Alphonse. He suddenly felt very foreign in the situation he seemed to be creating. Leaving the nurse's station now held higher appeal than leaving gym.

"I think I will be okay," Ed said, sounding unsure. "I don't need to call anyone."

Darleen returned with an ice pack, and somehow had the same unsatisfied look in her eye Hawkeye was capable of. Havoc recognized it immediately, because it was painted across Hawkeye's face when Breda brought in his home made spicy chicken wings, and he had Ed sat at his desk and devoured them even with their noses running and their eyes tearing up.

"No, I'd like you to call someone," Darlene said, sitting the ice pack on her desk and picking up the phone. "Who can you call?" Ed stood slowly, as if drawing to a conclusion, when she lifted the receiver. "Is your mother home?" For just a moment Havoc was certain Ed's face lost a little color. Ed looked as if what little he had to say dried up on him, and he was rooted in front of the chair staring at the phone. _For most people mom was home._ "Edward, honey?" Darleen asked, lowering her tone with worry. "Yes?"

"Yeah," Ed muttered. He took the phone and Darleen returned to the adjoining room.

Havoc watched Ed dial with a sense of validation he had made the right decision in following Ed. It was clear Ed's characteristic leadership traits were wobbling, and Havoc felt relieved he'd be in reach if needed. Ed was not relieved and felt awkward with Havoc present. He glanced uneasily at the casual soldier. "You should go back to work," Ed said, feeling the beginning, but acutely specific, swell of embarrassment in his stomach. He didn't want to look like an idiot, and he was beginning to feel like one.

Havoc gave an exaggerated shrug. "What's five more minutes?" Havoc asked kindly.

Ed bristled. "_I can take care of myself Havoc._" Ed brought the phone to his ear and Havoc gave these words a sour look of confusion. _Who was suggesting otherwise exactly?_ "Stop with-" Ed silenced when the line was answered. "Hey, can you come get me?" Ed asked.

In the tiny office, Roy's voice was audible from the receiver in low muffles, and Havoc had to smile. All Ed did was ask one question, and the colonel was pouncing. He didn't understand the question, or what reason could be behind it. Ed looked ill where he stood listening to what Havoc could only assume was one of the colonel's spontaneous, albeit passionate, and short lived lectures. "Because," Ed said angrily, trying to cut Mustang off. "Because is a reason, and that's it." Ed closed his eyes with Roy's arguing. It was coming at a calm and even pace like steady fire. "What room is this?" Ed asked, looking expectantly to Havoc.

"Just tell him you're in the nurse's office. I am sure they only have one."

Ed tightened his grip on the phone and gave a frustrated breath. "Will you please just tell me the room number?" Ed asked, voice tight with inpatient frustration. His cheeks were growing pink and he could feel his fever blossoming quickly. The sooner he was off the phone, the sooner Havoc left, and he could leave. "Havoc, just tell me the damn room number."

"I don't know the room number," Havoc said, offering another quick shrug. "I went to public school Ed, I am telling you school's only have one, just say you're in the nurse's office."

Ed did not want to say he was in the nurse's office and closed his eyes feeling suffocated and swallowed up by whatever he had put into motion that was swinging things out of his control. "Go outside and look for the number on the door than," Ed ordered.

Havoc stood up and snatched the phone. Ed jerked with immediate surprise. He was not used to soldiers ignoring his orders when he gave them. For a minute he was stunned, but before anger arrived the professional font of Hawkeye's POA report floated through his mind. _Commanding objectives recognize ranking officer Colonel Flame Alchemist Roy Mustang only. _So that was it_: _Mustang, Mustang was god to all of them.

Havoc brought the phone to his ear with a confident expression. The playing field was shifting and Ed hated it. He was becoming the sick child, and Havoc was assuming the rights he owned as an adult. The age given capability and responsibility to act when action was needed. _Ed felt like vomiting and kicking Havoc in the nuts all together. _While performing this mission he did not outrank Havoc, and it was infuriating.

"Yeah Roy it's me," Havoc said, with a tone of exhaustion. "Just come down and get him, he's in the nurse's office. He's sick man." Roy immediately became annoyed and was asking questions, but Hawkeye's voice was audible in the background instructing Mustang to leave at once. Havoc vaguely heard the words '_not the time' _and '_patient and friendly.'_ "Yeah. Yeah I'll stay with him, thanks." Havoc offered the phone to Ed, but Ed ignored it with a look of bored disinterest. Havoc returned it to his ear. "He says goodbye and he's thrilled you're coming."

Ed was disgusted.

Darleen returned with a second thermometer and went directly to Ed. "Now Edward your temperature was very high, so I just want to double check, okay?" she asked. Ed looked dumbfounded this act was repeating. Darleen was quick, with the look of uncertainty on Ed's face; she grasped his shoulder to steady him and knelt down. "Just stand still, I want to check one more time to be sure." Darleen moved the thermometer to Ed's mouth, but he took it quickly and placed it under his tongue himself.

Ed closed his eyes tightly and tried to swallow. This woman's touch seemed incredibly intimate, and with her hand on his shoulder he couldn't feel anything else. Her attention was bringing the alarming sense of invasion and his entire body was locking into place.

"Thank you for being so cooperative Ed," Darleen said kindly. Ed ignored this and in a moment he ripped the glass stick from his mouth and offered it to her.

"I have a fever. I can feel it," Ed said, sounding if anything disappointed in himself. "I am sure I'll cool down soon."

Darleen read the second thermometer with worry evident on her face. "You're reading so high," she said softly to herself. Havoc and Ed exchanged glances. In a reassuring fashion Darleen slid her hand to Ed's back and rubbed. Ed went rod straight with embarrassment and discomfort. "But no worries Ed," Darleen said, lowering the thermometer. Ed could feel his face burning and had never been so thankful to have a fever to hide his blush. "I know you must be feeling pretty bad, but as soon as your mom gets here we'll get some medicine in you." _This statement was a blow to the gut._ Ed's expression slackened in shock. Entering into the military so young, no one made accidental statements like this because they all knew the Elric brothers were orphans. Ed was startled with the sting of these words, and found it yet again so disheartening the wound never seemed to close.

Darleen misunderstood Ed's troubled expressions for illness. "While we wait for her, since you're so warm, I want you to put this here." Darleen set the icepack on Ed's forehead and he held it in place. The sudden rush of cold made his stomach lurch, and he realized he'd better confess before it became too late. He whispered it discretely. "What honey?" Darleen asked, leaning closer. "You're going to what?" Havoc couldn't even hear Ed speaking. "Going to throw up?" Darleen asked, adapting a tone of concern. Quickly she steered Ed into the adjoining room and walked to a cot. Ed followed slowly until she pulled the curtain around most of it and it became apparently she was preparing it. Ed stopped at once and gave his head a single shake. "Come over here Ed, lie down." Each cot had a pillow at the top and Darleen pulled the fat white bundle downward so it would be in easy reach and looked expectantly to Ed. Ed took a single step back and gave his head another shake. He had a lot of practice with gurneys in his life, but being asked to lie down was often followed with things being either removed or incerted, and so they repelled him. "It's all right Ed, you can go ahead and lie down," Darleen said sweetly.

"I want to stand." Ed argued closing his eyes. _She was making it worse. _Ed felt immense self-conscious pressure and tried to block her out entirely. It was bad enough Mustang was coming.

"You'll probably feel better lying down." Darleen encouraged reaching forward and gently grasping Ed's shoulder again. Ed pulled it inward and stumbled forward a few steps when she guided him toward the side of the cot.

"I don't want to!" Ed snapped, pulling his arm away. "I just want to stay like this."

Darleen laid her hand on Ed's forehead and considered him. He seemed capable of standing. "I am not authorized to give you any medicine Edward; we'll wait for your mom."

"That's fine." Ed said, struggling with the painful expression corroding his features. Every time that word fired it was like a bullet, and Ed knew he'd loose composure if he couldn't avoid more hits. "I am fine," he said, trying to steady his voice the best he could. "I can just wait."

"Do you think it's something you ate? Are any of your friends sick?" Darleen asked. Ed gave his head a quick shake.

From in front of Darleen's desk Havoc watched things unfold. Ed was answering Darleen's questions with shorter and shorter answers and she seemed unable to make sense of this. "As soon as your mom gets here you'll feel better." Darleen reassured, and with this comment Ed stopped talking all together. "How long does it take her to get here from work?" Ed's silence increased Darleen's anxiety and she pressed her hand to Ed's red cheek. "Edward?" Ed ignored this and after a minute she gave up. "Okay, you just call me if you need something."

Darleen returned to her desk and Havoc gave her a smile. She seemed to be a warm hearted nurse, certainly not their suspect. "This poor little guy is so sick," Darleen said, quickly filling out student discharge paperwork. "I hope his mom gets here soon he looks about ready to start bawling."

Havoc found the concept of Ed crying in a nurse's office so foreign it was funny. "I doubt that," he said, busting a short laugh.

Darleen looked up with a bit of confusion, but Havoc had learned to win women over with his smile and she relaxed. "Thanks for walking him down here." She pointed toward the back room with her pen. "Why don't you go talk to him while he waits? He doesn't seem very responsive to me; maybe he's closer with his father. You could…" Darleen trailed off when her desk phone rang, and when she answered it Havoc took her advice and walked to Ed's side.

Ed was holding the ice pack to his forehead with his flesh hand and the back of his neck with his automail. Havoc dropped onto the cot parallel the one Ed was pretending didn't exist.

"Ed why don't you sit," Havoc said. A few kids came in to see Darleen, and Havoc sat back and stretched his legs. There were three students, one had twisted an ankle and they were a grade higher than Ed. Still, that didn't stop the story of the kid with a metal arm which was spreading through the school like wildfire. The boy with the medal arm was in a younger sibling's class and was weird. With Ed standing in complete silence staring at his feet, Havoc studied Ed thoughtfully. He'd picked on a lot of underclassmen in his day, but never as maliciously as it seemed Ed had it. The student with the twisted ankle had a brother who told him how mad a teacher had gotten when something had leaked out of the metal kid's metal arm and stained the kid's partner. This partner Cindy had started crying because it ruined her shirt and her arm was now covered with a rash.

The student who needed a band aid had not heard this story and was incredibly engrossed with it. "Wow, I can't believe that," the boy said. "My friend's sister told me a lot about the kid and I think his metal arm is cool."

"Don't say that," the second boy snapped. "My dad said you don't put automail on children and there is good reason for it. He shouldn't have it, it's no good."

"Think that stuff that leaked out is his blood?" the third boy asked, applying his band aid.

"I bet it is," the first boy said. "Human blood can't go in metal limbs. And he must have known it was coming out, but he let it get all over Cindy anyway."

Ed jerked from his motionless stance as if shoved, and yanked the cot's curtain closed separating himself and Havoc from the office. "That was an accident," Ed whispered, clinging to the privacy curtain for a few wobbly steps. "Sometimes…" Ed released the curtain and wiped the beads of sweat from his face. "…the grease for the wires…" Ed silenced with a cough.

"Ed." Havoc stood, and with a gentle but firm grasp of Ed's shoulders, relocated him in front of the empty cot and pushed him to his butt. "Don't listen to these kids man; they don't know what they're saying."

"I know," Ed said, voice unstable and weak. Ed ducked his head and swallowed in a desperate attempt to hide the emotion from his voice. "I know."

"It doesn't mean anything."

"I know," Ed whispered, before groaning when his stomach turned over on itself. Quickly he laid his automail back over his neck. The cold touch was refreshing and he was banking on his palm to help lower his fever so things wouldn't become worse.

"Ed, maybe you should take something," Havoc said, feeling uncertain about how things were going. "Are you going to be sick?" Ed looked like he was going to be sick. The boy was all but turning green.

Ed tried to shake his head the best he could. _No! He was not getting sick here! _Not with that weird lady who was too nice, and with Alphonse so far away, and with Mustang coming. "Ah, Roy's taking his sweet-ass time," Ed whined, blinking quickly when his eyes rushed with tears. _Keep it together!_ "I should have called a freaking cab."

Havoc ran a hand through his hair feeling nothing but sympathetic. "Man you're sick as a dog Ed." Ed ignored this statement, and kept his eyes on his feet and his tears in check. "And I don't know the half of what's going on here, but I don't think it's a good idea. I am gonna tell the colonel."

Ed looked up with immediate alarm. "_No_," he whispered fiercely. Havoc was taken back with the sudden intensity in Ed's voice. "_No._"

"Are you kidding me?" Havoc asked, giving an elaborate shrug. "Come on Ed. I don't think things should stay like this," he whispered, dropping to a knee "This mission could outlast Hawkeye's initial two weeks, we both know that." At eye level Ed's expression was contorted with disgust. "Let me say something," Havoc pleaded kindly. "Casual like."

"Say what?" Ed snapped, lowering the ice pack and wiping at the sweat on his forehead with the metal hand. "Tell him I am being...picked on and can't do my mission?" Ed asked, voice dripping with hate. "I can do my mission." Ed's eyes refilled with tears. "I am not going to let some petty bullshit…stop me…" Ed swallowed hard. Havoc did not look persuaded; he looked worried with this explanation. "Havoc," Ed said nervously. He was doing everything he could to fight his tears away. "…You owe me," he said softly. "For making me run." Quickly he dropped his automail from his neck and pulled his shirt closer growing cold. "So…don't tell."

Ed ran his hand back to his neck thinking about how Havoc would most likely tell. In this mission Mustang was king, and Havoc would report something he believed Mustang would want to know. Also, if he became incapable of operating at full efficiency, than it was neglectful of Havoc not to report it! _Ed felt his stomach twist_. How was he going to get out of this? He needed some help! _He needed Alphonse!_

"Ed, undercover work is never a cake walk. Everyone knows that," Havoc said kindly. He could feel his words deflecting back to him. Ed was listening but he couldn't readily accept. "This is your first one." Havoc's words felt like spoonfuls of lead to Ed, and he leaned toward his knees with a heavy groan when his stomach tightened up and pushed its contents up his throat.

Havoc cautiously put space between Ed and himself. "Hey Darleen!" he called, glancing quickly toward the curtain shielding her desk. He pulled it aside and the children she was helping were leaving with brief waves. "You got something he can be sick in?"

"Do I have what?" she asked, looking into the doorway with confusion.

Just as the last child left, Mustang caught the door and stepped in wearing black professional clothing. Havoc gave a fast relived sigh._ The colonel would end this. _Darleen's attention turned to the new stranger, and when Mustang spoke, a calm and simple 'I am here to pick someone up,' Ed's entire body stiffened. Where Havoc felt relief Ed only felt alarm. A rush of self-conscious concern bubbled up and clamped Ed's shoulder's inward as he tried to figure out how he would escape the school conducting himself normally.

"That's my queue," Ed said weakly. He ran a hand down his face frantically wiping away the sweat, before staggering to his feet and leaving Havoc behind. Ed walked directly to the side of Darleen's desk and she seemed surprised he arrived without being called, but Mustang's baritone voice stood out in a school of high octave child voices and mimicking adults. Being flat, with a level of assertion, Mustang was the only black item in a pure white room looking completely comfortable to be such.

"Thank you for coming so quickly." Darleen was speaking when Ed approached her side. "Here he is, I am afraid he's quite sick." Roy looked puzzled with this statement, and gave the ice pack Ed held to his forehead an offensive glance. "I haven't given him anything, so you'll want give him something as soon as you get home." Ed extended the ice pack to Darleen but she politely refused and guided it back to his head. "No honey, you keep that on your head. You can keep it." She gave Mustang a quick smile, and continued reporting. "His fever is very high. You might want to have him take a bath when you get home to lower it quickly, he must be feeling terrible."

Roy's look of confusion tightened, and he gave a forced nod. "Thank you," he said. _A bath? _"We'll…do that." Ed left Darleen's side with the colonel looking like the befuddled father of a newborn rather than a fourteen year old and let himself out. Roy followed with a standard departure and Darleen sighed when her office was again empty.

"I sure hope he feels better," Darleen said, sitting down to finish Ed's paperwork. Havoc strolled up to her side and remained thoughtfully silent. The colonel and little chief seemed to have perfected their act well enough people did not suspect their false father-son act. "Poor thing, he seemed so bothered by his own illness," Darleen said, pen writing quickly. "Didn't complain or say anything while sick. I was really hoping his mother would come get him." Darleen glanced up and Havoc felt a foreign jab of sympathy for the small alchemist who outranked and him. "Even at that age, there's no substitute for a mother."

* * *

Roy followed Ed from the nurse's office in confused and disagreeable silence. Ed had not said a word since he arrived and he wasn't certain where to begin. The nurse said Fullmetal was sick, but he was walking around like normal save the ugly facial expressions.

In the long hall they were traveling Ed stopped at what appeared a random locker to Roy and began working the combination dial. "The nurse's office?" Roy asked, leaning into the locker along side Ed's. "You couldn't tell me that on the phone? It was that big a deal?" Ed ignored this. "If you really are ill I could have arrived sooner without your obstinate behavior." Ed opened the metal door and yanked his book bag out in one vicious pull. "At this rate any clinic you need will probably be closed." Ed threw his book bag to the ground and reached in for textbooks. "Do you know what's wrong with you?" A fat math textbook was thrown to the ground. "Were you sick yesterday?" A fat science textbook was added. "You looked fine this morning." Ed yanked a few notebooks from his locker and crouched down with them. "Ed?" Roy was becoming irritated with his unanswered questions. "How do you plan to continue surveillance from our post?" he asked. Ed was cramming stuff into his book bag, and with this question Ed's hands paused for just the slightest moment before continuing. Ed stood, kicked his locker closed, and began a quick walk toward the exit shifting his book bag on.

Roy gave a dramatic sigh and began following. Five feet behind Fullmetal a bell rang and kids began entering the halls. Suddenly Ed managed a pace twice as fast and Roy was baffled he was being left behind. _So ungrateful!_ Ed exited the school without him, and was standing there in the sunlight and landscaping when he caught up. Approaching Ed ten feet in front of him was a sole male student hurrying towards an idling car. The student was passing Fullmetal without the slightest interest before making a fast double take at the automail arm glinting in the sunlight.

"Oh hey," the student said, tripping slightly with his sudden stop. "You're that kid." Ed turned slow and dark eyes toward the new student who stood in paralyzing awe of the large metal appendage feeding outward from Ed's body. "It's really real," the student whispered, before tearing his eyes from Ed's arm. "Your leg too? They say your leg too." The student uncurled a hand from his backpack strap and reached toward the metal arm in a slow hypnotic reach as if extending his fingers toward fire, but Fullmetal was not impressed. Ed slapped the boy's hand aside and shoved him back a few steps. "Hey!" the student snapped, focusing all attention on Ed. "I just wanted to touch it. They say it's cold as ice to keep your flesh pieces from rotting inside. You know, like a refrigerator?" the boy adjusted his backpack and gave Ed a dirty look. "I gotta go." The boy resumed his route to the waiting car before looking back. His expression was mildly disagreeable until Ed gave him the finger, and then the boy's mouth dropped open in a look of disgust.

Roy approached Ed's side and gave Ed a questioning look. This interaction did not by any means appear friendly with Ed pushing the small weaponless student, but Ed ignored him. As soon as Roy arrived, Ed continued his fast walk to the car and they drove in complete silence until Roy could no longer take it.

"You can't do undercover work while sick. Do you want to tell me how you became sick?" Roy asked, glancing quickly from the road to Ed's piggish slouch. Ed was sitting low in his chair looking hideously disgusted with the ice pack held to his head. "Ed," Roy said firmly. "I said, you cannot do undercover work while ill. Is this from all the junk you have been eating? That can't be your normal diet." Ed moved his automail hand to the back of his neck and remained silent. Roy found this more than irritating and fixed his eyes on the road for a good minute. With Ed's silent treatment lecturing seemed more difficult, but so appealing. "Don't forget who I am just because I am wearing these clothes Fullmetal," Roy said, lowering his tone to a near whisper of controlled agitation. "When I ask you a question, you are to respond, is that understood?" he asked, managing another glance. Ed had squeezed his eyes shut and looked uncomfortable, as if preparing for a splinter to be removed. "What are you doing?" Roy asked with angry confusion. "Pay attention when you're being spoken to," he snapped. "Open your eyes."

Ed tightened his eyes further and fought the unwelcomed and nonconsensual urge to vomit with everything he had. Mustang's voice was like a large banging drum in front of his face and he was focusing on anything possible to calm his mind and fight the tense ache consuming his muscles.

Roy pulled into the driveway at a low level of furious. "Ed…" he killed the engine as fast as possible. Ed cracked an eye and opened the passenger side door but Roy reached over and shut it. "No," he said firmly. Ed startled when the door slammed shut and looked to Roy with an unreadable expression of irritation and something else. "Now you listen to me," Roy said, giving Ed's chest a firm poke. "I do not like disrupting the mission. I do not like driving out unscheduled to get you, and I certainly do not like you not doing your job. You are off the clock for the remainder of the night, and tomorrow I expect a bright and chipper version of whatever you're doing now back in that school doing surveillance. Is that understood?"

Ed glanced toward the passenger side door feeling helpless. Mustang was like a massive angry bear, and Ed slid the icepack to his forehead hoping the cold would make this easier.

Roy was enraged with the side glance from him. _"Ed!"_

"Yes sir!" Ed startled, and swallowed after words flew out of his mouth. Mustang had brainwashed him, and he felt emotionally ill he was trained with 'yes' responses.

"Good." Roy sat back and let himself out. "I've had enough." Ed scrambled out of the car and into the house too fast for a sick person. When Roy entered there was only Hawkeye waiting with a confused expression and Ed's abandoned sneakers on the mat.

"So?" Hawkeye asked softly. She gestured to the stairs, and Mustang ignored them. He didn't want to see the irritating boy. "Is…everything okay?" Hawkeye looked as if she had a puzzle with too many pieces to grasp the picture she was trying to make.

"I have to assume so," he said. _What more was there to say?_

"What do you mean by that?" Hawkeye asked, with a growing tone of concern.

He gave her a shrug. "The nurse said he has a high fever, but he's walking and talking." Roy stepped around her to enter the living room. "Relax Hawkeye, Ed's used to taking care of himself." He looked down at the blueprints on the coffee table with exhaustion. "I told him in the car I expect him back at school tomorrow."

"Sir," Hawkeye said, with the gentle undertone of a scolding. "That's not…" she trailed off seeming unwilling to finish the sentence. _That's not really practical. _"Well what did the nurse say? Should I call someone?"

Roy gave the back of his neck a rub. "All she said was that his fever was high and she recommended a bath. You wouldn't believe how argumentative he was on the way back here." Hawkeye turned for the stairs as if he just informed her Ed was upstairs with new missing limbs. He was baffled. "Hawkeye, where are you going?" he asked, following her to the hall but she was heading up them with purpose and didn't answer. "Does no one answer me when we're undercover!" he snapped, following quickly.

He again added to the list. Number Nine: School Nurses

Hawkeye went to Ed's closed bedroom door and knocked. "Ed?" Hawkeye called.

"Just leave him alone Hawkeye, he wants to be left alone and we need to finish what..." Hawkeye held up a hand for silence and Mustang sighed when he cut his sentence short. It was impossible for him to identify the day he began obeying her hand gestures, but humbly he had to admit that he did.

Hawkeye called to Ed again before resting her ear on the door. "Now you're spying on him?" Roy laughed, but Hawkeye shot him a scolding look. He gestured to the door, the evidence of his statement. "I would call that spying."

"I am not spying," she whispered.

"You're spying."

"Ed?" Hawkeye called, ignoring hime "May I come in?" She cracked the door an inch and peeked in. "Ed, may I come in?" she asked, glancing around. The lights were on so it was easy to see the layout of the room, the bit of mess Ed had made living there, and the dull glare he was giving her from his bed. With eye contact Hawkeye opened the door and stepped in. Ed was stomach down on his bed sprawled out and holding the icepack to his head. "Ed?" Hawkeye stepped in and Ed groaned.

"What?" Ed managed, keeping an eye cracked to watch her. Hawkeye seemed unusually tall from his angle and it was unsettling.

"Ed, I am sorry to enter your room, but I am bit apprehensive, you don't look so good."

Roy fought the urge to roll his eyes because he was irritated Ed was receiving what he would label Special-Hawkeye-Treatment. He had once witnessed the back end of a car blowing up in such a way the passenger side door blew off and threw Havoc off his feet as if it were a wrecking ball. Hawkeye had ran to Havoc's side, but after asking if he was all right and receiving a groaning yes, she gave him a painless kick to the back of his thigh and said "Get up." She had her weapon cocked and in her hand, and she never so much as lowered it.

Hawkeye crossed the room and stopped alongside Ed's bed. Ed had his eyes closed and grunted sarcastically with her observation to his appearance. He knew he looked like shit. He was fair skinned as it was, and things like the flu turned him the color of baking flour.

"What was your diagnosis?" Hawkeye asked, sounding guilt ridden with her prying but unable to contain herself. Ed was not going to answer this, and ignored her question. "Ed?" _Hawkeye was relentless!_

Hawkeye waited patiently for an answer before looking back to the colonel who stood in the doorway. Roy gestured angrily toward Ed's silent treatment as if to say: _See! See what I had to deal with!_ Hawkeye felt her patience dwindle. _Men were such babies_.

"Ed, if you didn't take something you need to do so." Ed maintained his silence. "And if you don't think there is something appropriate for you to take I want you to see someone."

"I did take something," Ed snapped irritably. Hawkeye narrowed her gaze on the tiny boy. "Please go away, and shut the door behind you."

Hawkeye reached out and gently set the back of a few fingers to the portion of Ed's forehead not covered by the ice pack but dripping with its perspiration. The heat was too much, and in the same moment she realized his fever might be out of his control, he realized she was touching him and flinched back with an awkward sense of invasion.

"I am sorry," Hawkeye whispered, quickly withdrawing her hand. Ed's gaze was untrusting and disturbed with her hand. "But, I think you need to get up Ed. Your fever is too high."

Ed looked disgusted. "I said I took something Hawkeye." His voice was tight with agitation. "Go away," he ordered sharply.

"Ed, I don't want to leave you up here."

"I want to be left up here!" Ed cried with outrage. "I feel sick! Go away!" Ed demanded pointing toward the door before swallowing unsteadily when his stomach rocked.

"You'll at least go to bed?" Hawkeye asked, and Roy could hear the uncertainty in her voice. He couldn't anticipate where this was going because her voice was unsatisfied. She didn't feel confident with any of the conclusions being offered to her. Outside of the office this was more intriguing than inside, where it often meant a more thorough review of said reports and papers.

"Yes," Ed said angrily, pushing his face into his bed. "Now go away. Turn off the light. Get out."

Hawkeye bristled with this command and captured the catalyst that would create a satisfactory conclusion for her. Mustang was eagerly waiting for it. _She was so good because she always found it._ It came in a fast and kind, but irrefutable commanding tone. "Edward, do not forget I am the first lieutenant. Now get up, you're not sleeping in your uniform."

Ed moved the ice pack aside and looked up to gauge how serious Hawkeye was, but her face matched her voice, and she had piercing eyes when she wanted to.

"Hawkeye." Ed did little more than whine out her name.

She left for his dresser. "Up, _now_," she ordered.

Mustang watched Ed slide to the edge of the bed and stagger up holding his stomach with Hawkeye pulling things from Ed's drawers.

Ed balked when he saw this. "Get-get out of my stuff!" he cried, sounding weak and pitiful.

"I am not getting anything personal," Hawkeye said, pulling out an undershirt and showing it to him. "Get that off." She indicated Ed's school uniform with a wag of her finger and Ed began unbuttoning his dress shirt breathing like he was preparing to dive for clams.

Ed felt overpowered with Hawkeye's sudden aggressive feminine side, but Roy loved it. Apparently she also shared his hate for sleeping on top of the covers and in the incorrect clothing.

Ed unbuttoned a few buttons on his shirt and stopped to see if this meager effort would appease her. She was not fooled. "Ed, change," she ordered quickly.

"Get out so I can!" Ed cried, sounding frantic. With only a glimmer of the incredible commanding strength she had inside her being display, Hawkeye reminded Ed of Izumi, and he was nervous to contradict a fire he had personally tested could burn him.

Hawkeye approached with the tee shirt and Ed followed her with a cautious gaze as if she were a black cloud just waiting to become a tornado. "What did you take?" Hawkeye asked. Ed was working on the last few buttons of his dress shirt and stopped to point toward his bed where a small newly opened bottle of medicine lay in the sheets. Hawkeye picked it up and read the back as Ed dropped his dress shirt to the floor shivering in his wife beater and pants. "How much did you take?" Hawkeye asked, while waiting.

"A swig."

"A what?" Hawkeye looked up and watched Ed peel his wife beater up with exhaustion.

"A swig! A swig! You know, you tip the bottle and swallow some!"

Hawkeye was horrified and offered Ed his new shirt while opening the bottle. "Take a little more please. One swallow might not have been enough." Ed took his shirt from her looking a bit disturbed with this idea.

"What…if that's too much then?" Ed asked, dragging his new shirt over his head. Hawkeye opened the bottle and filled the cap.

"It won't hurt you." Hawkeye offered the cap and Ed looked at it wearily. "I promise Ed." She gave him a smile and he drank it. Hawkeye took the cap back with a pleased nod and gestured to Ed's uniform pants. "Keep going."

Ed shook his head and reached for the ice pack he had discarded in the bed. "No," he muttered, bringing it to his forehead. "Not with you in here."

Hawkeye set Ed's cold medicine on the provided desk with a sigh. "Do you want to take a shower or bath Ed? The colonel said your fever was reported to be very high."

Ed listened to Hawkeye with a slack expression of illness before angrily muttering, "I want to go to bed before I vomit."

"It will cool you down so you're not as nauseous."

It was clear to Roy Hawkeye also wanted to lower Ed's temperature faster than medicine alone, and the fact she was siding with the nurse without ever hearing what the woman had to say, made him curious. Was this woman's intuition guiding her? Should he order Ed to shower?

"I am going to bed," Ed said firmly. "If I wanted to shower, I would have done so."

Hawkeye gave a quick appeasing nod, not a nod of agreement, but one of truce. "Okay," she said, lifting a hand as if to stop Ed from motion when he wasn't making any. "Then please wait to continue undressing, I'll be right back." She left the room quickly and Roy moved out of her way.

Ed crawled back into bed whining out angry incomprehensible protests. He flopped down on his stomach and curled into a fetal position. "Just go away Hawkeye! Please!" Ed yelled, pulling his pillow to himself and hugging it. "Leave me alone," Ed groaned, speaking to no one.

Hawkeye was quick and in a minute she came back with a wet towel. She didn't offer an explanation; she went right to the bed and wrapped Ed's head in it. Ed was so startled with the grasp on his shoulders and head he did nothing but flail in silent panic until something the temperature of the arctic assaulted him. "STOP!" Ed cried, reaching back for Hawkeye's hands and shoving at her. "Stop! It's freezing! What are you doing!"

"What are you doing?" Roy asked, nearly at the same time. He'd never seen such a thing, and Hawkeye was beginning to look possessed. Somehow Ed's sickness had turned her into…something else.

"Ed, I am so sorry," Hawkeye said, sounding surprisingly sincere for someone continuing the act they were apologizing for. "But your fever might really be too high." Ed was disgusted and made a few attempts to break free before sitting Indian style in his bed shivering with his head incased in the turban she was holding. "I promise this will make it better."

"This isn't making me feel better, I want you to leave me alone."

"I know," Hawkeye said kindly. "I will."

"Now." Ed sounded ill. His voice was weak, and crumbled at the end of his sentences. Sitting slumped over holding his stomach and breathing heavily Roy was finding it more and more impressive Ed wasn't puking somewhere.

"You're going to go to bed after this, right?" Hawkeye asked.

"That's what I've been _trying _to do," Ed said irritably, before deflating with a large exhale. Ed tipped his head back to look up and Hawkeye was surprised. She felt a bit embarrassed with the immediate eye contact. She wasn't Edward's charge, and didn't have the right to coerce him into changing and taking medication, so the direct connection made things a bit awkward. "Hawkeye?" Ed asked, closing his eyes and letting them rest. _She was being…so nice._ "Can I call Central?" Hawkeye wasn't expecting this, and felt a momentary loss of words. "Can I?" Ed whispered. "Call my brother?" _Oh how she wanted to say yes_. She was mute. She didn't have it in her to deny him.

Roy did. "No," he said, answering quickly. "I've told you that before."

Ed closed his eyes in defeat and Hawkeye gently unwrapped the towel from his head. "We'll be downstairs if you need us Ed." Ed waved this off in a gesture more appropriate for waving them toward the door. Hawkeye stepped back before noticing Ed's uniform pants.

"Ed, you're sleeping in your uniform pants?"

Ed lay down and curled up. "Leave me alone! I'll wear what I want!" Hawkeye gave a heavy sigh and pulled the sheet up from the bottom of the bed. As soon as it was in reach Ed snatched it from her, but didn't complain or move when she brushed his wet bangs from his forehead and helped adjust the wrapped ice pack across it.

Hawkeye stepped back from the bed and locked eyes with Roy. He could tell she was satisfied. "Let's go," she said, lowering her voice as if Ed were already asleep. "He'll feel better as it continues to lower." They left and she shut the door as Ed had asked. "I've developed a tactic for the base," she said, sounding excited. "It just came to me."

Roy felt derailed with the topic change. _Could all this mothering really end so abruptly? _"It's okay you leave him?" he asked, before feeling like an idiot. _Leave him, like they were going somewhere, like Edward was an infant._ Hawkeye waved this off.

"_Yes!_" Ed yelled from inside his room. They were still audible, and Ed's voice was dripping with insulted agitation. "Go away! I've said go away! _I mean it!_ I'll sealthe door with alchemy! Don't come back!"

Hawkeye ignored this cheerfully. "I think we should blow up the outer wall," she said. Mustang felt stunned and displaced. What was really happening here? Were they planning for a mission or babysitting? How was it Hawkeye was doing both? _Simultaneously!_ "I really can't believe I didn't realize it until now." _Oh?_ Mustang though, staring blankly. It seemed safest to let the current carry him, and when Hawkeye left Ed's door he followed. She seemed to have a plan and in all other accounts Mustang felt lost at sea with the sudden hurricane which smashed through and turned one afternoon upside down.

* * *

A thousand pardons to you all! I was delayed out of town, with everything but Chapter 4. I just got back with barely enough time to throw stuff together for a big BBQ I am hosting (so tired).

I really hope you enjoyed chapter 4! Please leave a review for me. Chapter 5: They Feel Like Bullets But They Aren't, will be up next Friday (on time : ) Thank you!


	5. They Feel Like Bullets, but They Aren't

Another Run of Events  
Chapter Five  
_They Feel Like Bullet, but They Aren't_

- mirage -

With school hours being what they were, the next day Havoc explained the exciting events to members of their team who had to go to bed early enough to be bright eyed and bushy tailed within their roles.

During gym class, sitting a bleacher up Havoc kept his eyes on the kids and off Ed as he spoke.

"So they blew up the outer wall." Ed was waiting patiently for his turn to play a few feet away and inconspicuously watching the game. "Some of the powder went off sooner than expected, Fuery almost shit a brick." Havoc laughed and Ed struggled to hide his own. "We were on site until the sun was coming up and then the colonel called the retreat." Ed could only imagine the late night escapade and stake out until dawn. "I am on my sixth cup of coffee." Hockey was today's game and the boys were running up and down the field yelling and diving for the puck. "My _sixth," _Havoc emphasized. "I don't think that's healthy." One of the kids struck out. He was knocked over, lost his stick, hurt his knee, and Ed was up and taking his place.

Gym was an easily conducted task oriented class. Overseeing children playing one ball focused sport after another, was much easier than drills and weapon training.

Havoc watched Ed play on the indoor court. Ed was targeting the puck with avid aggression and lost the cautious feigned-indifference that plagued him during school hours for something as comfortable and simple as competition. In play Ed was a locomotive of thrust and momentum. He had the training of a soldier, and the skill of a fighter. With the automail he had both a sword and a shield, and gained the puck in seconds. The children were struggling for it, crowding over it in a squabbling vulture frenzy. Havoc knew Ed could throw a lot of sudden thrust with the automail, and watched Ed step into the group, and take possession of the puck with baffling ease. Ed slapped the puck and sent it sailing across the court to the few students managing the goal and far less enthused then the rest of the class.

The students who were moments ago struggling to so much as pass it, silenced with a bit of awe and looked uncertainly between the small black circle and Ed's stoic expression. A few of them broke hesitant smiles of excitement, before the puck came flying back across the court and deliberately into Ed's shin.

Havoc winced upon impact even though it was the automail which took the blow. Ed stood unaffected, his metal ankle a lamppost to the oncoming car which was the puck. He didn't feel the blow and its feather touch caused nothing other than the loud dong of rubber striking metal and a bit of vibration. It had the effect of a metal bat taking out a T-ball, and Ed looked down at the puck sliding away from his sneaker before lifting his gaze to the culprit.

Tommy was ready with a wide sardonic grin. "Sorry about that," Tommy said sarcastically. Havoc slapped himself in the face.

The action was painless, but the intent was painful, and Ed swung his stick into the ground and charged after the puck with new ambition. The object of the game was now the successful insertion of the puck into whatever part of Tommy's body didn't move the fastest.

Havoc watched the ongoing Hockey match with a level of exhausted expectancy. He wasn't allowed to discipline fore planned behavior, even if he was certain of its arrival. Diligently he waited with his whistle in hand determined to arrive on scene before anything became serious. He would have to entertain putting a bug in the colonel's ear about Ed staying professional with little brats who wanted to push his buttons. This was becoming problematic.

Ed and Tommy were getting dangerously close. The other students were the only things separating them and the natural violence of the game was proving an efficient catalyst to propel things further. Soon their sticks were missing each other by mere inches, and the puck was wielded like a bullet. _Havoc couldn't take it. _Without a fault to call he stood up intending to simply order them both off the court. _They could spend the game sitting if that's what it took. _

"All right!" Havoc called, earning a few eyes. With the squeaking of the sneakers, and the constant slapping of the sticks, the coach, who had no reason to intervene, wasn't the first thing noticed. His sudden announcement was unexpected and somehow only seconds before Tommy let loose an unrecognizable string of banter Ed responded to immediately. Whatever was said, Ed spun toward Tommy with the hockey stick raised more like a baseball bat and Tommy loved it. "Hey!" Havoc snapped, but things were escalating too quickly. Tommy waved mockingly toward Ed's aggressive stance with his mouth running, and Ed threw his stick to the ground and charged the boy. "HEY!" Havoc yelled when Ed plowed Tommy into the ground. He leapt off the bleachers and ran toward the two bodies rolling about on the floor. The hockey game had completely dissolved and reformed as a circle of cheering classmates shaking their fists and stabbing what few hockey sticks were still being held into the hard wood floor for a drum rhythm.

Havoc shoved a few students aside and stepped over the two boys. Ed was ready to strangle Tommy and was wiggling his automail hand to the boy's neck with Tommy struggling to manage a choke hold. Havoc grabbed them both by the collar and ripped them apart.

* * *

Roy awoke with the phone on its ninth ring. It was early afternoon but with last night's schedule so active it felt like three in the morning. He rolled over half asleep and took the call with his eyes still closed. Then, a half an hour later, he was storming down the hallways of the school's B wing toward the Principal's office. Before he arrived he spotted Ed.

The call said he needed to come to the school, that Ed had been sent to the office, that they needed to speak to him, that they considered this serious. As a result Roy was expecting maybe a small committee of academic administrators as if this 'we' composed a team who had, prior to the call, been discussing the delinquent behavior of their undercover operation. What he wasn't expecting was the sight of Edward standing alone in the large hallway outside the entrance to the Main Office.

With Roy now at the school, and not home recovering, he had to alert everyone before he left his post. This disrupted surveillance, it weakened their formation, it sounded as if it disrupted reconnaissance, and most importantly, it was damn inconvenient for his sleep schedule. It took almost twenty minutes just to alert everyone to the change in schedule.

Ed was standing with both arms outstretched on either side of him and a sizeable book resting ontop of his flat palms. Roy approached, with a quick and angry stop, and frowned down at Ed. He didn't have to be a previous private school member to recognize a student in trouble when he saw one. _He was not impressed with this. _

"Fullmetal," he whispered softly, in a tone of anger he knew Ed would identify quickly. This was his, '_I am mad this is late'_ tone, the '_I said return to Central a day ago' _tone. Ed's eyes were closed when he approached, but with his angry self Ed opened them at a slow deliberate pace of defiance. "I am furious," he explained. Ed was wearing his gym tee shirt and shorts and looked scuffed up with a bandage over his nose and under his chin. "You can bet on a long scolding lecture." Ed's arm and leg had small scraps on them, and his clothing was wrinkled. "Are you listening to me?" he asked, angry with Ed's silence. Ed gave a slow miserable blink in response. "What the hell are you doing?" Roy gestured to the books with confusion. "What are you doing with these books?"

"What does it look like?" Ed asked, voice thick with his own level of agitation. "Holding them!"

Roy grunted with distaste, and asked, "What did you do to work yourself into so much trouble you need demerits in the hallway like some two year old?"

Ed was taken back and startled with the sting of this accusation. _So Mustang was going to assume everything was his fault! Without even hearing his side!_ Before Roy said this he had an entire argument he wanted to share. He wasn't certain he was going to come clean about Tommy, but he was definitely going to fill Roy in on his side of things! It wasn't fair the school allowed the students to antagonize him, but jumped down his throat if he so much as did anything back!

Roy glanced toward the office when Ed balked with his question and didn't seem capable of offering any dribble of a response. "How long have you been out here?" Roy felt a bit of sympathy creep up on his anger. A small part of him remembered what it was like to be punished in school, and standing in the hallway where everyone could see you were in trouble seemed a bit cruel. Surely whatever Ed did, it wasn't _that _bad. Without alchemy, it was hard to imagine how Ed was still capable of working himself into such scrapes. "They called me almost forty minutes ago."

Ed's expression was something Roy couldn't read, but with his last statement Ed's anger came back full fore and Ed grit his teeth for a nasty little snarl before snapping out, "Well then will you just get in there so I can put these down!"

Roy left and the secretary was expecting him. She greeted him politely and called the principal. Marianna looked just as hideous as before and she gave Mustang a curt smile while shaking his hand. "I apologize for having to uproot you from your schedule Mr. Elric, I know this was unexpected."

"Yes, well…" Roy trailed off, unsure of what to say. Marianna left to the hallway and Roy watched her beckon Ed in with her finger.

"All right Edward," Marianna said. "That will be quite enough. Come on inside here young man, we need to have a word with you."

Ed entered carrying the books with his automail arm and rolling his flesh shoulder. Marianna returned to her office waving for them to follow and Ed tossed the books onto the secretary's counter and rubbed at his left bicep.

Marianna gestured to the two chairs facing her desk and shut the office door behind them. "Mr. Elric, please take a seat. I am sure you're anxious to know why you've been called in." Roy made himself comfortable and Ed sunk into the chair at his side rubbing his left shoulder looking irritable. "It seems your son started a large fight in the middle of gym class. Himself and the other student suffered minor injuries as you can tell." Marianna indicated Ed's appearance and Roy looked at Ed with disagreement. Ed sensed the immediate displeasure and straightened in his chair when a rush of defensive anger boiled up inside him. _This wasn't his fault!_ "We're trying to be fair, so I want you to understand I am not accusing him, he has openly admitted to the fight." Marianna glanced Ed's way as she mentioned him, but Roy turned fully to look at the boy.

"You started this?" he asked, more shocked than annoyed. _Really?_

"I already said I did," Ed mumbled irritably, lowering his gaze. "I am not going to lie about it, but I had a good reason, and no one is listening to that reason."

"Edward," Marianna said, dropping her tone to something understanding, but also unable to entertain excuses.

Roy ignored this. "What reason?"

Ed looked up with a bit of surprise, and glanced between Roy and Marianna. He wasn't expecting Roy to be opened minded about this, and nervously licked his lips. "Well," he said. "There's another male student and he's been saying some stuff, some rude things to me, and I asked him to stop, but he hasn't." A look of confusion bled across Roy's face and Ed suddenly felt the only reassuring option which had presented itself begin disappearing as fast as it had reappeared. "Roy, what was I supposed to do?" Ed snapped. "All I did was go at him a little bit," Ed said, giving a quick uncomfortable shrug. Roy's expression fell like a brick to something that said quite clearly: You know better. And it wasn't the childish sort of you-know-better, it was the respectable kind. The you-know-better-while-we're-on-a-mission, or the you-know-better-as-a-result-of-your-top-quality-tr aining. It was the you-know-better that was given from someone on your own team, who knew you could do better than you were doing, and who told you so while you were thinking about how you also could have done better, and felt like shit about it.

"Understandably here at Workashire we don't permit that sort of behavior." Marianna sat down behind her desk. "So putting aside Edward's past, what is almost intolerable behavior, I am willing to deal with this incident exclusively since this one in particular does need to be dealt with."

Roy gave a heavy sigh. _All this over a fight during gym?_ "Fine," he said, giving a nod. He wasn't going to argue for Ed's innocence in blind denial. Ed was openly admitting to his crime and couldn't do more to look as if he'd started a fight in gym class if he wore a sign. Marianna was surprised with Roy's immediate agreement. "I apologize for his behavior, this school has been nothing but lenient with my family and the move we've endured." Roy ignored the discrete kick Ed gave him. Ed did not seem to agree with this _leniency, _but he did, and it needed to continue for the mission to continue.

"We appreciate it," Marianna said kindly before looking to Ed. "Edward, please go wait outside my office so your father and I can speak."

Ed looked to Roy quickly. _He was being kicked out!_ There were few meetings he was used to being removed for. Those few concerned classified information outside of Roy's jurisdiction and were for the most part topics he didn't want to be involved in anyway. This order to leave was a slap in the face, and Ed gave Roy a quick eye flare before exiting the room.

Marianna waited for Ed to shut the door behind him before she spoke. "I want to thank you again for coming on such short notice. We do understand how it is hard for parents." Roy lifted a palm to dismiss such comments. "Edward has shown himself to be quite a handful," Marianna said kindly. "I wanted to make an opportunity for us to discuss him if there was anything concerning you. It is our goal to continue to provide him with the highest level of our academic excellence, even if he struggles with behavior."

Roy couldn't believe this. They had put Ed in a sought after and accomplished school and he was acting like a hoodlum. He respected the school's administration for tolerating it, and even for attempting to work with it, and managed a quick, "Thank you." _He couldn't wait for this to be over._

"Because this is his first offense I do propose only six. Even though the offense is quiet high, leniency we want to offer the first time. While this is not the first fight, this is the first one we're holding Edward accountable for. I don't want to startle him."

Roy gave a slow nod, waiting for further explanation but Marianna seemed content. "I am not following," he said, offering an apologetic smile. "Six of what?"

Marianna gave Roy a quick bat of her hand as if he were joking to be cute. "Six of the best," she said, and Roy gave a slow nod as it became clear, and far slower, crystal clear.

"I see," Roy said, stroking a hand over his mouth wondering what the _hell _he was going to do about all of this.

* * *

Roy left Marianna's office and found Ed waiting in one of the few Main Office chairs nervously bouncing his knee. Dressed for gym, the naked exposure of the automail and juvenile setting made Ed look much younger than even Roy considered him. He shut the door slowly trying to decide if Ed was being manipulated by the academic setting, or somehow simply clarified by it. It seemed disturbingly accurate that Ed was really the small boy he looked like, and Roy averted his eyes when Ed noticed him. Now was not the time to think about abandoning young soldiers in foreign schools when they needed to get their mission accomplished.

Ed looked up with Roy's return and his gaze was full of hope this was all ending. Roy heard Ed's thoughts at once: _Get me out of here!' _and things suddenly felt harder.

"Ed, walk with me," Roy said, exiting the office. Ed followed quickly but kept his pace slower to trail behind. "I am not blind Ed," Roy said, feeling compelled to explain things as he understood them. He wanted it known he recognized something was not running as smoothly as it should during this mission, and that he was aware even if not acting on it. The fact of the matter was they needed Ed inside the school, and so unless physically incapable of fulfilling his mission objective, Ed had to stay there. "I want you to know I am aware something is going on." It seemed Ed did not think he had caught wind of what was becoming frightfully obvious. "I know you're having a hard time fitting in here and you're hiding it," Roy said, sneaking a glance at Ed's sour expression. "Poorly," he clarified. Roy paused for Ed to catch up but Ed stopped as soon as he did. Roy turned to face the boy and Ed looked uncomfortable with the eye contact and uncertain where this conversation was heading. "But you've gotten yourself into a real mess, and I suppose I haven't helped." He felt truly sorry for believing this to be true.

Ed snorted skeptically. "What'd _you_ do?"

Roy approached the main entrance to the school and held the door for Ed to exit. "I don't think I have been as supportive as I could have been." Ed gave another skeptical snort and exited. He walked a few feet toward the lavish landscaping before looking back a bit confused.

"If we're leaving, should I change?" Ed plucked the front of his gym shirt forward. "This is my gym stuff. I need it here."

"No, we're not leaving," Roy said, giving a heavy sigh and preparing himself for this conversation. He was going to address it like a colonel and systematically attack the agenda so nothing was missed. "Let me ask," he slid his hands into his pockets casually, "did your mother ever hit you Ed?"

Ed was thrown with the topic change, and for a moment seemed unable to abandon the consuming event at hand before growing a look of appalled disgust. "_What?_" Ed asked, with a tone of building outrage.

"Did your mother ever hit you," Roy repeated. "When you misbehaved," he said quickly, impatient for Ed to close this metal handicap and grasp the obvious conclusion of why he might be struck as a child.

"What?" Ed was still battling his disgust. "_No._ What? _No,_ no she didn't hit me. She didn't hit us." Ed gave his head a small shake before running a hand through his hair. "What the hell is the matter with you colonel?"

Roy glanced around when his title was dropped. He didn't realize the question was rattling enough for Ed he would forget they were in a mission and speak precariously. "I didn't mean to offend you," he said, lifting a hand in a quick patting wave.

"Implying my mother might have hit me, is offensive to me," Ed snapped.

"I wasn't implying," Roy corrected, focusing to keep the patient tone Hawkeye encouraged. It was amazing how quick Ed was with some things, and how hard it was for him to wrap his head around others. Roy considered this character flaw infuriating. "I meant it as an objective question." Ed's look of disgust wasn't dissolving. "What about your father?" Ed's eyebrows shot up with surprise. "When you misbehaved," he quickly added.

Ed turned around and looked out toward the landscaping. "No," Ed said softly. Roy sensed there was more to be said and waited for it. He wasn't going to pressure Ed into answering; he knew Ed would continue their conversation as he was expected, and as Ed had always proven himself capable. Already Ed was buckling with his silence and continued stare. Roy watched Ed's shoulder's tighten and pull inward. Ed did not sound full of outraged conviction the way he had when speaking about his mother, and after a moment Ed glanced back at Roy's silence and cringed. "Once," Ed admitted shyly. "One time." Ed ran his hand back through his hair and forced himself to face Mustang. It felt awkward to talk about such a personal topic at such a chaotic time, and Ed took a deep breath trying to steady himself. "Why? What's that got to do with anything?"

Roy gave a casual shrug. "This school practices corporal punishment Fullmetal, and you're in trouble."

Ed was silent and kept the perplexed, yet aggressive, expression he wore until Roy could see the light bulbs turning on and Ed's features began relaxing with a bit of shock. Slowly Ed's brow unknotted and smoothed into a stunned stare of disbelief.

"Roy…" Ed said nervously.

"I signed a legal document of consent which allows you to be punished," Roy said raising a bit on his toes and rocking back down with a sigh. "So now you're going to do it."

"_What_," Ed said, voice dangerously low. Ed's head tipped forward and his eyes pinched up into daggers. "I am going to…_what?"_

"You're going to cooperate like all the other students here who are punished if they step out of line. Why should you be an exception?" Roy asked.

Ed's eyes widened with shock. "Because I am not a s_tudent_ dammit! I am an _alchemist!_" Ed slapped his palms to his own chest. "A freaking state alchemist! I am not some dribbling student!"

"You're a student now," Roy rationalized. "Aren't you?" Ed choked a sound of indecision. "You're undercoveras a student, aren't you?" They had to stick to the facts. "Don't you think it's suspicious if I force the school into some elaborate exception?" Ed gave his head a slow shake of building concern. "To speak frankly I honestly don't even know that I can. You can't have a discipline practice in which parents keep waiving their children out of it." That didn't make business sense."And alternatives don't sound as if they'd work. Since we agreed to this school's teachings when we put you in it, if I force them to provide you with some type of exception they might suspend you."

"Then let them suspend me!" Ed jumped on this, and began nodding enthusiastically. "I can be suspended!"

Roy visibly scoffed. "And how will you do reconnaissance from home?"

"I!" Ed sputtered, thinking quickly.

"You _can't_. You _can't_ do reconnaissance from home," Roy clarified the obvious. "I don't need to explain basic reconnaissance to you Ed."

"Roy!" Ed snapped, lifting a fist aggressively. "I've put up with hell in that school." Ed's arm shot out in an angry point toward the building. "Shit you don't even know. You have to get me out of this, I _hate _being there." Roy was stunned with the word hate. Dislike maybe, but hate? Were things really getting that bad? Havoc hadn't reported anything which should validate Ed's dramatics.

"Ed, be reasonable."

"Be _reasonable_," Ed scoffed, dropping his hand with a look of disgust. "Are you hearing yourself? Be _reasonable?_" Roy regretted this phrase, but wouldn't admit it. "I am not doing it, that's it." Ed was escalating quickly. "I am not letting arrogant little miss stick-up-her-ass do anything to mine," Ed said, voice struggling for the firm angry tone Roy was so used to. The _I am getting our bodies back no matter what tone_. It was a tone of true conviction, of immense determination and solidarity. Ed's current tone sounded as if he knew he was standing on quick sand and was trying to ignore the crumbling foundation below his soles.

"Ed," Roy said kindly. He understood this was hard, and that this was unusual and embarrassing. It was unfortunate they ended up where they were in this mission, but like everything else, just because this wasn't a bullet or a bomb didn't mean they wouldn't have to work with it while on duty. "When I take you home with me," Roy said softly. Ed looked ready to explode. Ed was so certain he couldn't argue his way out of this he was almost shaking with trepidation and the inability to stomach the fact this _wasn't _a bullet or a knife. "I will let you call your brother." Roy offered the only thing he knew Ed truly wanted, and Ed's eyes lit up. Immediately Roy had Ed's full attention and Roy felt himself become cautious with his wording. Dancing on such pure emotion was dangerous and could be damaging. "Because you put up with such hell." He explained his rationale. "But you have to be willing to put up with a little more." And here was the catch. Ed's face buckled and the look of hopeful excitement crippled with pollution from the adult world. The never-ending double edge sword of everything that ever looked perfect at first take. "Do you understand what I am saying?" Roy asked, seeking confirmation this emotional rollercoaster had not entirely derailed them.

"That's all I have to do?" Ed asked, skeptically. A few years ago Roy remembered linking his hands beneath his chin as he sat at his desk and saying, _Disobey me, and I'll ship your brother to a lab you'll never find. _At this time Ed's watch was almost too big for his palm, and Roy remembered the vain satisfaction that came from scaring a little boy with his incredible colonel-power. Ed had met him under such circumstances, and learned that a friendly face could mean cruel things. Now, even after all this time Ed had never perfected his ability to read a bluff, and Roy had never offered to explain when he was bluffing, so Ed recoiled from the temptation to accept Roy's offer skeptically.

"That's all," Roy agreed, offering a brief smile. "Take it," he encouraged. "Pretend you don't know the alternative, in which I make you do this, and you don't get to call your brother." Ed looked out into the landscape thinking. "In this option, you get to be the bigger man." These were the facts. In a mission every bullet that couldn't be avoided had to be taken. It was how missions worked.

Ed tipped his head back and closed his eyes with a cleansing breath. Roy stayed silent. He could wait. He respected Ed's attempt at mental stability in an unstable moment enough to wait. "Okay," Ed said softly.

"You get to choose." Ed looked over with confusion. "Fifteen with the paddle, or six with the cane. That's the best I could negotiate for you."

Ed blanched. "What?" Ed sputtered. "A paddle?" Ed separated his palms a foot apart to frame an invisible box and Roy gave a nod. _Yes, that was what a paddle was._ "No way, I am not freaking letting-I am not freaking-no way." Ed was shaking his head at once before rubbing his hands down his face. "No, I don't want that. No paddle." Ed was scrubbing at his eyes. "How's this work?" Ed asked, sounding ill.

"You go back to her office. Afterward you should go back to class." Ed dropped his hands from his face with a look of horror. "But I'll bring you home with me instead. You'll be dismissed early. I negotiated that as well."

"Okay," Ed choked, raking his hands back through his hair before petting the automail down his chest consumed in thought. "Okay." Ed gripped his tee shirt before shaking his head again in a continuous sign of disagreement. "Okay, I go to her office?"

"Her office."

"Where's she…" Ed trailed off fighting the blush he felt coming quickly. Roy could see the sudden pink color appearing and tried to anticipate the question.

"She shouldn't be touching you, that's not really appropriate, so it won't be that intimate. You will stay as you are now, and your positioning will be rather professional." Ed didn't know what to make of this statement and pulled at his tee shirt uncomfortably.

"Where's she…" Ed managed, struggling with the same question. "Like…" Ed ran his flesh hand back through his hair. "I mean…She's going to hit my ass, right?" Ed managed looking dreadfully uncomfortable and Roy gave a nod. The longer Ed mentally analyzed this, the worse the boy was becoming and Roy stepped back and opened the entrance door.

"Let's just go get it over with." Ed was looking sick, but with the order began a stiff walk into the school. "Now remember," Roy said, walking at Ed's side. "You got yourself into this fight. Start keeping yourself clear of them. I don't want to be called back in here." Ed looked disturbed the concept of future fights meant future situations like this, and nodded unsteadily.

"You'll stay here, right?" Ed asked nervously.

"Yes. I will wait for you." Roy lowered his tone to a calm and kind baritone to counteract Ed's flighty escalating pitch.

"And you're staying with me?" Ed asked, sounding hopeful, before startling with his own thought. "Are you going to watch?" Ed stumbled a bit as if he were assaulted by his own mind and swiped his hand to the side as if to chop a tree. "You _aren't_ watching," Ed said firmly.

Roy broke a quick smile. _How absurd_. "I'll wait outside," he said. He approached the office entrance with Ed matching his quick pace. "I'll wait here." He stopped and Ed looked up at him before giving a quick nod and leaving for the door. Ed managed two steps before Roy captured Ed's arm and stopped him. "Fullmetal," he said quietly. _He felt compelled to provide reassurance he couldn't remember being compelled to bring before._ "I'll be right here."

Ed slipped away looking worried and returned looking alarmed. He was little more than a breeze and rush of color exiting the office before a he whispered a vicious "Let's go" while high tailing it toward the main exit. Mustang followed quickly, temporarily lost as to what to say or do. Ed was power walking down the hall with his body ramrod straight as though seconds from breaking into a run.

"Should I ask how it went?" Roy asked in all seriousness.

Ed took this for sarcasm. "If you want a punch in the mouth," Ed responded bitterly. Roy was surprised with the strained almost crackled sound to Ed's voice and slowed when Ed pushed the door open and shot out. "Where'd you park?" Ed was looking up and down the elongated parking lot. "Where's the car?" Ed was jittery, moving constantly as if his skin was one giant itch, and Roy didn't know what to make of it. He didn't know what to think. On all accounts it was as if Ed were having a mild vertical seizure.

"Are you okay?"Roy asked, feeling puzzled and, in his new role, implicated to do something which escaped him. Ed shook his head, and Roy felt the slip toward lack of know-how become a jump and all he could think of was his four year old nephew who while playing ran straight into a wall and burst into tears. At that moment he had also not known what to do. Pick him up, or leave him? He was usually not the one available and never the first responder, so he had no practice. This created an alarming rate of indecision that came at a time requiring immediate decision, and Roy felt this familiar loss suddenly appear with Ed. What was he supposed to do with this co-worker/alchemist/subordinate/child? Pick him up or not pick him up? "What do you mean you're not okay?" Roy asked, digging his keys from his pocket. _What did that even mean?_

"I am not okay!" Ed snapped, stepping off the curb toward the sea of cars. "I mean I am not okay!" Roy indicated the back of the SUV and Ed shot for it. Ed went directly to the passenger side door and in one violent yank ripped it open. Roy climbed into the driver's side with Ed fuming. "That lying bitch!" Ed climbed in quickly. "She freaking gave me more than six! She freaking gave me nine! I thought you said it was only six if I picked the cane! That wasn't fair Roy!"

Roy slid his keys into the ignition. "No, that can't be right." He found that highly unlikely up until Ed tried to sit down and then bolted up as if he'd sat onto nails.

"Freaking! Are you freaking kidding me!" Ed cried, grabbing at the seat of his shorts and rubbing frantically before forcing himself to stop. Ed pulled his hands back to his sides in an effort to contain himself, but it wasn't fooling anyone.

Roy felt entirely at a loss of words. He'd never seen Edward behave like this.

Unwilling to sit Ed crouched in front of the passenger side chair with a deep groan and Roy gestured back to the seat trying to gain some verbal sense. "No, Ed." That was all he could manage, and he waved at the chair. "No, Ed, you need to sit and buckle up." Roy turned the engine with Ed heaving fast breaths.

"Roy!"

"In the chair," Roy said sternly, backing out. Ed slid in wincing and breathing viciously through his teeth before going mute with his eyes shut tight. "Now be serious with me. She didn't give you nine."

"She gave me nine!" Ed screamed.

"Ed, no one does nine," Roy scolded. "They come in sets, six, twelve, I don't know what comes after twelve, but no one does nine."

"I know what I got! _I know how to count!_" Ed knocked his head into the chair and groaned. "Roy?" Roy glanced at Ed's squirming. "Roy! It feels like my skin is burning off! Pull over!"

"We're not pulling over."

"I am getting up!"

"You're not getting up."

Ed squirmed miserably, before slouching down in his chair and gritting his teeth. "Have you had this before?" Ed croaked.

Roy had to break a small laugh. He remembered each and every time and why. "Yes," he said, remembering Sarah Gilman from tenth grade. "I went to private school and liked girls in short skirts."

Ed whined. "How did you deal with it?"

Roy looked over at Ed and the slouch that had him lying almost back down on his chair. "Pretty much how you're dealing with it." He returned his eyes to the road. "I've only been caned four times and that's impressive considering all the rebellious teenage things I did." He chuckled. "But keep in mind they were only rebellious for a private school boy."

Ed laid a hand over his eyes and tipped his head back into the seat. "She lectured me." Roy found this appropriate. "Worse than you." Roy felt insulted. "Much worse than you."

"Well she did have an unfair advantage I do not." Roy felt compelled to defend himself. If he held a cane each time he lectured someone he had to assume the fear factor would be greater, and he glanced at Ed to share this before realizing he was completely misinterpreting this portion of their conversation. Ed wasn't telling him he was topped; Ed was sharing what happened, and doing so because he was upset. "Ed, don't dwell on it," Roy said. Beneath the palm Ed had gripping his eyes, his teeth were still grit with his chest leaping. "Ignore her."

"I am ignoring her!" Ed snapped pitifully. "I-I got something in my eye!"

Roy wasn't expecting this confession. "You're crying?" he asked with disbelief.

This question destroyed Ed's remaining self composure. "She was so freaking mean about it!" Ed cried, clamping the flesh hand over his eyes and squirming slightly. "Scolding me the entire damn time! Telling me this is what I deserved! Lecturing me on stuff like I am an idiot! She's making it seem like this is all my fault, but it's not my fault! I am doing exactly what I am supposed to do! I am trying really hard! But she said I was being disrespectful and negligent of what was expected of me!" Ed let this out in one breath, and than broke into several quick hiccups. Roy was shocked, not just with the level of verbal punishment, but that Ed was so taken by it.

"Ed it feels different to be verbally and physically punished at the same time, don't dwell on it."

"I know that!" Ed yelled, nearly cutting Roy off. "I am not dwelling on anything!" Ed rolled to the side to face the door and sniffled heavily. Roy glanced at the movement and found himself considering the pair of shorts Ed was wearing and the small width of the boy's rear. It seemed a struggle to fit six strokes, never mind nine. They drifted into a few minutes of silence where Roy felt a bit of self disappointment a better response to this had not bloomed within himself.

Ed gave a second strong sniffle and broke their silence. "She wouldn't let me talk to her about what she was accusing me of. If I said anything to defend myself they felt harder, so I stopped!"

"That's considered arguing," Roy said, worried Ed couldn't interpret arguing as arguing.

"Well she was wrong!" Ed snapped, rolling back over to make eye contact. "I shouldn't be held accountable for inaccuracies! And I sure as hell shouldn't be accused of them! She's wrong!" Ed gave the dashboard a solid kick with his flesh leg. "I hate that school Roy, I hate it! I can't go back!" Ed was sick with humiliation and felt entirely violated. Somehow in the course of the afternoon a female stranger had forced him into an uncomfortable position, and while being rude and aggressive, physically beat him. It was so incredibly different from the swat to the back of the head, or the single quick embarrassing smack to his rear he'd never admit he'd received when he was younger. This woman was hitting him with the intent to truly hurt, and had succeeded! Ed couldn't imagine looking her in the eye, or ever having to speak to her again!

"Ed," Roy said kindly. "You need to relax about this because you have to go back to the school." Ed bristled with Roy's comment and turned his face toward the window before wiping his nose on his arm with a heavy sniffle. "Not everyone in life will know what they're talking about. This is a perfect example of that. This wasn't what you needed, do you understand?"

"I can't go back!" Ed yelled, and his sentence broke half way into a whiny cry he quickly hid with a cough. "I hate it!"

Roy pulled into the driveway and killed the ignition. "Okay, we're home," he said. There wasn't much else to be said. The mission wasn't going away and going back to the school would just have to be another bullet to take.

Ed was out of the car so fast Roy wasn't sure the boy even heard him. Ed was storming his way to the front door in a stiff walk before suddenly stopping and spinning around. "Roy! Is anyone in there?" Ed yelled, standing in the lawn pointing toward the house.

Roy walked around the car slipping his keys back into his pocket considering this. "No, it's just us." Everyone had places to be. The mission said only he should be home sleeping. "Why?" he asked, crossing the lawn and unlocking the door with Ed shifting his weight in a constant sway of discomfort. "Do you want to speak to someone?"

"What?" Ed asked with appalled disbelief. "No I don't want to _freaking _speak to someone! I don't want to_ see_ anyone!" Ed shoved into the house and Roy broke a small laugh. "This stings so bad," Ed mumbled, rubbing at the seat of his pants cringing. "Ah, it stings so bad."

Roy passed Ed and walked to the kitchen. "Did she bruise you?" Since he was up he was going to have lunch. Ed followed him whining and rubbing at himself.

"I don't know. How should I know!" Ed snapped, looking uneasy with the idea.

Roy opened a cabinet and grabbed the peanut butter. "Let me see."

"No!" Ed cried, taking a few fast steps back to separate them. "Are you crazy!"

Roy found himself becoming concerned with all this whining and rubbing. "She didn't cane your bare ass, did she?" he teased, not believing this was the case.

Ed was horrified, and immediately yelled, "No!" while aggressively shaking his head. "But she was pissed as hell with my underwear cause I didn't wear those stupid ass briefs!"

Roy was taking the jelly from the fridge when Ed shared this, and he stopped entirely. Suddenly the idea someone made Ed undress lit a parental fire inside him, and in an angry accusing tone he asked, "You took your pants down?"

Ed was startled with the sudden strength in Roy's voice, and quickly shook his head. "What? No!" Ed lifted his palms chest height and waved them to swat this idea way. "Are you crazy! I wouldn't take my pants down! What's wrong with you!" Ed began limping a quick pace around the kitchen while alternating between holding his fists clenched at his sides to rubbing his backside. Roy pointed toward the pantry and Ed pulled out the bread. "She could see my boxers when I bent over cause these pants are loose and you can tell it's not lame tight white material."

"You know some people like briefs," Roy said casually. Ed threw the bread at the counter and limped to the refrigerator for the milk. Roy was surprised and cracked a smile. "Maybe we should cane you more often, look how obediently helpful you are."

"Stop that!" Ed snapped, sitting the milk on the counter and shoving it at Roy. "Don't tease me right now! You know what it feels like, why would you say that!" Ed tipped his head down and stopped all else for a moment of vicious rubbing. "Dammit, shit this hurts. This is horrible. I should have said the paddle." Ed groaned, before peeking at Roy. "I am not a wimp," Ed said firmly, bringing one hand up in an angry point while the other continued to rub. "I can take pain okay._ Necessary_ pain, this is _unnecessary_. _Unnecessary_ _pain._"

Roy gestured toward the living room. "Go lie on the couch and hike your shorts down. Let some air get to the stripes." Ed looked scared with this suggestion and his mouth slipped open. "I am serious." Roy began making his peanut butter sandwich. "No one will be home for a while and it will make it feel better." Ed looked toward the living room with hesitant uncertainly. "Go," Roy encouraged. "It will feel better." He gave Ed a smile. "I'll make you a sandwich."

Ed left Roy's side miserably. "Okay." Ed sounded worried as he left. "But don't come in!" Ed called back. "And don't look either!"

Roy laughed down toward the sandwich. Sometimes there was humor in horrible.

* * *

Roy tossed the personnel folder back onto the coffee table with annoyance. "Why would a custodian have military background?" he asked.

Havoc propped is feet up on the coffee table, heels on their paperwork, and sighed. "Who knows," Havoc said, smiling at Hawkeye's disapproving gaze. "But he does."

"Do you know this man?" Roy asked.

"I don't know any janitors."

"Dammit," Roy scoffed. "We should have made you a janitor."

"But then I wouldn't know any of the teaching staff," Havoc complained. "And I don't want to be a janitor."

"I don't care what you want to be," Roy said irritably. At the side of his chair Ed was sitting on the floor with his dish on the coffee table, and his face practically in it, eating a ham sandwich and reading the personnel folder Roy had thrown forward.

"Does the school know he has military background?" Ed asked, chewing as he spoke. Hawkeye left for the kitchen. "Do we have his resume?" Havoc shook his head. "Let's get it. I want to know if he disclosed it for the job."

"Fine," Roy said. Hawkeye returned with a glass of ice tea. She brought Roy a beer and he was appreciative. "Then we have our first suspect," he announced, smiling when Hawkeye sat a cup of juice in front of Ed. "Let's investigate. Hawkeye secure a copy of the resume he submitted for the janitorial position and the rest of his military files." Hawkeye nodded while sipping her tea and Havoc and Ed looked thrilled to have something on the agenda. "You two are on it tomorrow," he said, opening his beer with a grin. "Be ready." Havoc looked disappointed to hear work began tomorrow, but Ed gave a thumbs-up.

* * *

Hawkeye was sitting in the back of the SUV with Ed as Roy drove so she could get everything ready. "You're going to tape this to your chest Edward," Hawkeye said.

Roy glanced into the rear view mirror and Hawkeye was showing Ed the small white wire she held. In demonstration she brought it toward her own chest to illustrate how it would be taped, before deciding not to, and lowering it toward Ed's chest.

"Here." Hawkeye gave the middle of Ed's chest a gentle poke. "Then tape here, here, here, and on your thigh." She tapped down his chest before sitting back in her chair and Ed looked stumped.

"Does this use frequencies? Radio frequencies?" Ed asked, taking the wire and holding it between two fingers as if it were a worm. Hawkeye gave a nod and Ed made a face of displeasure. "I _can't _use this. Are you guys' nuts?" Ed asked, shoving the wire back. "Come on, this is the military, dammit." Ed lifted his automail arm so the metal interference was apparent and raised his eyebrows. "Use your heads. The metal will throw off the signaling."

Hawkeye pushed the automail arm down and leaned forward again. "Then put the wire on yourself so it doesn't," she said, with a tone scolding Ed's disrespectful one.

"That will be difficult," Ed muttered sourly. "How many inches away does it need to be?"

Hawkeye grasped Ed's flesh arm and tugged his top half forward before plucking the breast pocket of his school shirt open and dropping the wire and microphone in. "Not many. This design is made to be on your lower stomach and thigh, which means it can handle military belts, belt compartments, and weapons." Hawkeye took out her intercom and turned it on. "You can put it in your pocket and it will work fine, just seal up the top with alchemy so it doesn't fall out and isn't noticeable." Ed ran his hand over his breast pocket and felt the hardware inside. "Your wire is especially durable and also made for armored vehicle combat, so your automail should not be a big problem." Hawkeye gave Ed a knowing look as she corrected him. "If you notice interference, move your arm away, or move the wire someplace you feel would be better."

"Okay," Ed said. He clapped and traced his finger over the top lip of his shirt pocket threading it into the rest.

"And Ed," Hawkeye said kindly. Ed looked up and noticed at once the dangerous glint in her eye. "Next time you accuse me of not using my head, I'll find a memorable way to remind you I am," she teased, half serious.

Ed broke a bright innocent smile, and said, "That's why you're my favorite Hawkeye."

Hawkeye tried to hide her small laugh, but it was impossible. She gave Ed a playful shove and adjusted the frequencies on her intercom as they pulled up to the school. "Have a nice day Ed," she called happily.

Ed hopped out the back and then opened the vacant passenger side. Roy watched this and lifted his eyebrows questioningly when Ed stared in at him looking uneasy. "You'll be right here to pick me up later, right?" Ed asked, with a short uncomfortably glance towards Hawkeye.

"Of course."

"Okay," Ed prepared to shut the door. "Don't be late, be early colonel." Ed slammed the door and left towards the mass of kids mingling around the front of the school. Wearing an identical outfit he was blending into a sea of like colors, but somehow stuck out simply because he was all alone.

"He looks funny," Hawkeye said, watching from the back tinted window. Roy shared this thought but refused to verbally confirm it. He felt a tug in his chest every time he dropped Ed off, as if he were letting him run onto a battlefield where he didn't belong.

"He'll be fine," he said, reassuring himself. "He sees Havoc today." Roy shifted into reverse and Hawkeye turned up her intercom.

"Havoc is six, and Edward is three," she said. On one channel was the rhythmic thudding of basketballs and on the other the static and commotion of many young voices. "I hope something turns up today sir," she said, watching the scenery as they drove. Roy silently agreed. This couldn't go on forever. It was becoming difficult for all of them, some more than others.

* * *

Ed snuck into the gym office while Havoc was at his desk and his class was still filing in and out of the locker room getting ready. Alone in the room Havoc sprang into action and beckoned Ed over while lifting the phone to his ear. "All right so the guy's name is Jacob," Havoc said, speaking into the phone as if there was someone on the line and Ed was standing in wait for him. "From what I can gather no one really knows him well. He doesn't seem to have an office buddy. So I am gonna try and meet up with him for some light chatter." Ed was listening intently. "He also has an office on the first floor, room 3G, so I'd like to check it out.

"I can do that," Ed said, glancing cautiously toward the open office door when a few kids ran by.

"It's a faculty office Ed so it's off limits to students. Let me."

"No one will notice if I slip in," Ed said. "It would be better this way. We're both good at reading different types of information and you don't know a thing about alchemy." Havoc's expression soured, and Ed cracked a smile. "You're a dunce," Ed teased.

They agreed to tackle the room together later that afternoon and left the office. Havoc gathered his whistle and led the kids across the court to the back side door and outside. Today the boys would do some football on the field and Havoc was glad to be outside in the fresh air without having to carry weapons or supplies.

"Today we're doing some football!" Havoc announced, leaning into the fence outlining the well kept field as the students filed about in front of him. "Teams are breaking like this. Everyone who has a birthday toward the last half of the year offense, beginning defense. Get out there!" Havoc pointed toward the field and threw the single football he'd carried toward the nearest kid. The students took off with excitement and began lining themselves up before hiking the ball. Working in a grade where students already knew the rules to all sports played, beginning and ending was easy. Havoc watched a football game appear out of no where, with kids on either side forming strategies, and competitively cheering and taunting each other as they tried to score.

Casually Havoc kept his eye on Ed, and watched him interact with the students who didn't want anything to do with him. It was difficult and Ed was shy but forceful with the cold shoulder he received and managed to play.

Tommy finally broke the tension that was growing and Havoc slapped himself in the face, when the boy called out. "You know why you're team has all the points!" He never could have anticipated Ed and Tommy's birthdates would have separated them to different teams, but somehow if felt as if he should have.

"Shut up! Mahoonie We got 'em cause we're good!" A student on Ed's team responded, but the tension was only mounting. The class had little tolerance for the vendetta between their two classmates after Tommy and Ed were pulled to the principal's office and they were all scolded by a coach as old as the foundation and louder than a fog horn. Tommy and Ed were not bothered by this, and ignored the mass mutual of disagreement towards their bickering. The moment Tommy opened his mouth Ed zeroed in on him as a target, and the next time the ball was in play Ed ran right to Tommy and plowed him into the ground.

"God dammit Fullmetal," Havoc muttered. Ed stood up dusting his hands and jogged back toward his team laughing as Tommy climbed up fuming. "Keep it clean!" Havoc yelled, feeling ignored as an authority figure. For a moment it seemed they would make it through the day. As the ball was passed Tommy and Ed used the game to get at one another. They tackled each other roughly, tripped each other deliberately, and Havoc was biting the whistle sitting in his teeth when Ed elbowed Tommy with his automail harshly, before Tommy tripped him face first into the dirt. Ed spit a wad of it out staggering back to his team before fully recovering and this seemed a cycle which could continue relatively harmlessly until Ed had the ball and was sprinting as fast as he could toward a touch down.

Tommy took after Ed before he had the ball, giving him an unfair advantage, and Tommy slammed Ed into the ground in an all out leap and tackle ten feet from the fifty yard line. Havoc stood up and shielded his eyes with his hand when the boys didn't get up immediately. Instead Tommy propped himself up while laying on most of Ed's sprawled panting figure, and was talking.

"What's going on?" Havoc called, gaining a few glances from students near him on the field. There was nothing but the view of Tommy's mouth moving before Ed lifted the football and planted it directly into Tommy's face.

"Asshole!" Ed yelled, loud enough even Havoc could hear it.

Havoc jogged into the field and held up an arm. "Time!" he called, waving off the few annoyed children pointing at their fellow students who kept ruining their sports fun. "All right, time," Havoc said, arriving on sight. Ed was laying in the dirt breathing heavily with Tommy rubbing his face. "Tommy…" Havoc said, tone exhausted.

"I didn't do anything!" Tommy exclaimed, holding his nose and pointing at Ed. "But Elric hit me with the friggin' ball and he's swearing up a storm!

"So are you! Jerk-off," Ed snapped, giving Tommy a kick from where he lay.

"Enough," Havoc snapped angrily. "Tommy, get to my office now." Havoc threw a point toward the building and Tommy's eyes widened. For a moment Tommy looked shocked, but wisely didn't argue and stood up before beginning an angry stomp toward the building. "And Ed," Havoc said, sweeping Ed's dirty panting form with his eyes. "Follow him."

"_What!_" Ed cried, in complete shock. "Are you ser-"

Havoc cut Ed off with a loud, "Follow him!" and Ed silenced for a moment of hesitant confusion. Havoc could read it in Ed's expression, Ed wasn't sure what was happening, before a look of bitter defensive spite surfaced and Ed climbed up and shoved past him following Tommy.

Havoc took a deep breath. "All right," he said. "Now I am going inside," he announced to the rest of the class. The aura of trouble was in the air and the rest of the students had stilled and silenced waiting to find out what would happen. "I want the rest of you playing, and if I have one more outburst, the culprit will be getting more than just demerits!"

Havoc left for his office and Tommy and Ed were waiting for him in front of his desk a foot apart. "What the hell am I going to do with you two?" Havoc asked, entering with legitimate annoyance and slouching into his desk chair. Tommy watched this with a level of cautious regard not wanting to irritate him further, but Ed looked disgusted.

"Sir, can I explain myself?" Tommy asked, nervously.

"No you can't," Havoc snapped. He reached to his in-bin and pulled out the stack of cards sent to him each morning. There was one for each student and they reported all discipline so every teacher knew what the others were dealing with. Tommy immediately looked concerned when these were grabbed, but Ed's lack of interested lead Havoc to believe Ed had no idea what they were. He pulled out Tommy's first, and then stopped with shock when Ed's came with a list of dates and comments. His first thought assumed this must be a mistake. There was a date for nearly every day, and some of Ed's discipline surpassed simple scolding.

"Sir, can I please explain myself?" Tommy asked, looking reluctant to move to the next step on his card.

"Tommy I am sick and tired of both of you causing this ruckus in my class," Havoc said, slapping the cards down on his desk. He gave Tommy a stern look before glancing at Ed. "According to these cards, you both will increased your punishment level with today's disruption, so I can't just let you off with a warning anymore." Tommy immediately shifted his weight with anxiety and Ed was glaring. "So what do you think?" Havoc asked, propping his head in his hand. "I don't want to do what these cards say I should so...what can you two offer?" he asked, speaking to Tommy only.

Tommy jumped at the chance to repent. "I am sorry for disrupting class sir," Tommy said, "It won't happen again I promise. We apologize."

Havoc was surprised Tommy included Ed, but he didn't let it show. "Tommy, if I hear one more word from you I am gonna paddle your ass," Havoc said firmly. _A complete bluff._ "You're no longer allowed to speak when you enter this gym, understand?" Tommy was nodding eagerly. "Good. Now all I want is apologies, and for you two to quit it."

"I am sorry, it won't happen again," Tommy said, quickly. Havoc grunted skeptically and moved to stand before stalling. He had almost left before speaking to Ed, and with Tommy present, he needed to complete his role. Ed's expression tightened dramatically when Havoc looked over, and Havoc was surprised. He was expecting Ed to take this calmly, so they could be done with this fake teacher crap, but Ed looked serious.

"I am not apologizing for what I did," Ed said firmly. Havoc was stumped. Apologies aside, he just wanted the disruption to stop so less of his time was taken up with extra work spawned from his own covert team.

"Ed, just apologize and I'll let you both off with a simple demerits," Havoc said, trying to make sense of the high level of hostility he could feel Ed admitting. If Ed would apologize he could dismiss them both and probably dismiss Ed from class all together, but with this stubborn silence he'd be forced to make some type of move or he'd cast doubt on his own role. With Tommy as a witness Ed's bullheaded tactic was forcing him into a corner.

Tommy side glanced towards Ed with a look of disbelief and worry Ed's actions would drag him into trouble.

"Ed, if you don't apologize we're…" Havoc gave a shrug, trying exaggerate what they, as a team, should want to do. "We'll be in a different place with all this." Yes, this was what they wanted to do for the mission, so Ed's student role wasn't attention grabbing, and his teacher role wasn't attention grabbing, but instead Ed looked nervous with Havoc's statement. Havoc turned to Tommy and the boy startled. "Fine," Havoc said, firming to a fake angry tone. "Tommy, get to the hall, you're in demerits for the rest of the class."

Tommy nearly ran from the office and Havoc shut the door behind him and turned back to Ed with a perplexed expression. "Chief, is that stubborn silence what earned you all of those?" Havoc asked, pointing to the card as he returned to the desk and took a seat on the front corner.

Ed ignored the question and gave Havoc a cold glare. "What are you going to do then?" Ed asked, angrily. "Paddle me? Fine, then go ahead and do it."

Havoc was shocked. "Ed, listen." He dropped a hand onto Ed's shoulder but Ed flinched and slapped it off.

"Don't try and be my friend!" Ed snapped, taking a step back. "You betrayed me from day one here, so just _do_ what you're going to _do_ and stop stalling," Ed cried, voice brittle with a level of trepidation and worry.

"_Listen,_" Havoc snapped becoming insulted. "We're on the same side here Ed." Havoc was trying to remain rational, but Ed gave his head a quick shake. "Yes we are," he said angrily.

"I mean it Havoc," Ed warned.

"So do I!" Havoc grabbed the front of Ed's shirt and yanked him forward. "Ed,_ get a grip!_ I am not going to paddle you, you're talking nonsense. _You outrank me!_" Havoc gave Ed a quick shake, and it woke Ed from whatever spell he was slipping into. Suddenly the expression of anger slid away to one of shock. "You outrank me; I can't hit my superior officer. You're a major, you dumb shit," Havoc said kindly, giving Ed's face a kind punch to the side. "Now the coach saw me drag you in here, so just make it look like I did when you leave. I haven't dished out any discipline since I started here and I don't plan to. I am a soldier, and I took that job to fight for our country, not to punish little kids. Besides I haven't had any problems with these kids, this is a good school Ed. It might be enjoyable for you if you'd cool it a bit with Tommy." Havoc gave Ed a quick smile and Ed ran a hand through his hair as if waking from a bad dream and trying to pull it together. "Ed, you're a mess."

"I am…fine," Ed managed, sounding confused. Now it seemed so hard to understand how a minute ago he was not only worried, but felt as if he were powerless to stop something from happening to him.

"You're not fine chief," Havoc said, with a casual tone of concern. "I know you don't want to hear it, but I still think we should tell the…"

"No," Ed said quickly, shaking his head. "No, no. I am doing my mission. That's what I am here to do. I am doing it. There's nothing to report if I am doing it." Havoc found this statement a bit unsettling but felt trapped between a rock and a hard place. On one hand he had his direct report the colonel, and on the other the equivalent of a major trying his hardest. It seemed disrespectful to tattle without Ed's consent, but more and more Havoc was beginning to worry that Ed was no longer in the right mindset to make that judgment call.

"Okay," Havoc agreed reluctantly. Ed gave a sigh of relief, and straightened his tee shirt. "Okay listen, go take a shower and get out of here early. Take a breather; you look like you could use it. I am not giving you demerits." Ed was staring at his feet in thought and cracked a weak smile. "Okay?" Havoc asked, feeling uncertain Ed was paying complete attention. Ed gave a nod and left without lifting his eyes. Havoc felt the fool for keeping his mouth shut, but he was unwilling, although teetering on the line, to break down yet.

With Tommy and Ed dispersed Havoc checked on his class and found them happily playing football. Slowly, and almost dumbly, Havoc came to realize if Ed was supposed to be in class with him and he dismissed Ed inconspicuously early, there would be a fifteen minute window where Ed had no where he needed to be. _They could use that time_.

Havoc took to the locker room quickly when this light bulb lit and found Ed in the beautiful locker room between a row of solid mahogany lockers and a shining tile floor undressing. Ed had stripped his top half and was in the midst of shoving all shorts off when Havoc jogged into his row. Ed startled with the foreign running person and ripped his pants back up in a panic.

"Hey," Havoc greeted warmly.

"Geez!" Ed cried, gripping his shorts possessively. "What the hell do you want from me now?" Ed asked irritably. "Don't you think it will look bad if a single young soldier spends his undercover time in a young boys' locker room?" Ed teased dryly, pulling his towel out of his locker. "People could talk."

Havoc leaned into Ed's open locker door. "Ha ha, Ed." Ed pulled his uniform out and dumped it on the solid wood bench between the rows. "Actually I just realized if I let you out early there is a window of opportunity where you're not supposed to be anywhere." Havoc gave Ed a bright smile, and Ed gave Havoc an uncomfortable glance as if Havoc were pushing drugs or suggesting they sneak behind the gym to look at nudie pictures. "So…" Havoc said, with a bit of excitement.

"So?" Ed asked bitterly.

"So, I think we should check out 3G," Havoc said, continuing his excitement. Ed felt stunned this hadn't occurred to him. "Want to? Now's a good time."

Ed tossed his towel over his shoulder. "Yeah. I'll meet you in the main hall as soon as I am done. I'll leave and go around the building so no one sees us leave together."

Havoc gave Ed's shoulder an approving punch. "Good, but be quick about it."

Havoc left and monitored his class from the back gym window for ten minutes before walking back to the hall locker room exit where Tommy was on his knees facing the wall. Havoc felt a sense of exhaustion sweep him on sight of the boy. _Was it too much to ask to have peace?_ Vaguely he tried to remember if he were anything like Tommy when he was younger, but it didn't seem to be so. While they might have flicked rubber bands, slapped papers out of other's hands, and yelled obnoxious things at the 'dorks,' they never crossed any lines the way this Ed's-student vendetta seemed to. Havoc could see what few students were interested stepping over them in leaps and bounds so Ed's back was against the wall. It was rather discouraging when he thought about how nice the school was, and how different this experience could be for Ed if things had started just a little bit different.

Havoc paused at Tommy's side and considered the boy. Tommy kept silent and remained staring at the wall as expected. "You know," Havoc said, "When you move to a new place it's hard to fit in."

Tommy broke a smirk toward the wall, and hesitantly glanced up to gauge if he was to answer.

"It's not my fault he has no friends," Tommy said, when Havoc stood waiting for one. "He's weird. A total nut."

"He doesn't have any friends?" Havoc asked. The question popped free before he could stop himself because that new piece of information felt as heavy and cold as a stone. Havoc felt the impact at once, and it wasn't even aimed at him.

"Are you serious coach?" Tommy looked up with shock. "Have you looked at him? He's a total whack-job!" Tommy gave his head a shake and returned his gaze to the wall. "His body's all messed up, he thinks he's really smart, and he's a real dick." Tommy snorted. "You don't think so because he goes silent, but he's really an arrogant little prick. I've seen him showing up other students, and pushing stuff in their faces. We're just trying to learn, you know? If he knows it already well then there is no reason to gloat." Tommy gave a small grunt of disgust. "I don't get along well with guys like him, and I am going to bust the chip on his shoulder right off."

Havoc felt a flare of defensiveness rise with Tommy's last comment. "I don't want any talking in my class," he ordered firmly, pointing down at the boy. "This game is over in my classroom." Tommy didn't respond to this and Havoc left the boy for the main hall. He arrived just in time to find Ed slipping in the side door and starting down the hall. Ed moved quickly, wedging into the small ajar space of the door and then walking quickly from it. Havoc began a quick pace to catch up and Ed noticed him and waved dramatically for him to hurry.

They approached 3G together, looking about the vacant hall nervously. "I am going to cover you, you slip in," Havoc whispered.

Ed gave a nod. "Don't let me get caught." Ed gave Havoc's arm a firm poke. "This is serious stuff. I'll get sent to the principal and she's sick of seeing me."

"I know, I know," Havoc said. He waved Ed off and tried the handle. 3G was unlocked as they were expecting, and Havoc hiked his eyebrows and nodded to the door while stepping back to cover.

"I mean it!" Ed whispered sneaking in.

Havoc was nodding for Ed to hurry, and no sooner than the door closed behind him did Havoc spot the janitor entering the hallway with a large push broom.

Havoc panicked. He looked toward 3G but Ed had disappeared inside it. Quickly he started forward before hesitating. If he was found inside, he'd have to explain why he was there, but if he left Ed inside, Ed would be slaughtered! Havoc broke into a boxer shuffle of indecision before darting into the room. Ed was standing inside the small cramped office before the single desk piled with papers reading the stack he'd picked up, before jerking back and nearly dropping it with surprise.

Ed choked a sound of alarm thinking he'd just been caught, before recognizing Havoc and narrowing his eyes angrily. "What are _you doing!_" Ed whispered hysterically. "If you're in here, who the hell is watching my ass!"

Havoc ignored this and turned in a fast circle looking around. "Someone's coming," he said, eyes scanning the room. It was too small! There weren't any closets! There were no additional rooms! "We've got to hide." There didn't look like any place this could be done.

Ed's eyes widened substantially and he dropped the stack of papers back onto the desk. "Forget that!" Ed whispered. "We've got to _get_ _out!_" Ed turned and ran toward the single window.

"We don't know they're necessarily going to come in here Ed. We could make a cover story!" Havoc said. Ed was yanking at the window base trying to pull it up.

"I am not waiting around to find out!" Ed cried, stepping back to get better leverage. In front of the window sill was a small bookshelf crammed with supplies and belongings. The shelves held mainly school maintenance supplies, but the top was crammed with two odd looking plants, a stack of books, and fat package of light bulbs. Ed was struggling to manage a grip on the window without touching or moving any of the items on the shelf. "There's no cover story for me! I am skipping gym in here! I should be back there with you, and I am going to be in big trouble!" The window jerked up an inch and Havoc rushed forward to help. Ed was right. The only logical cover story for why they would both be in there was if Havoc went to get Ed, or went after him. Either way Ed was violating the demerits he should be getting, and Havoc knew from reading Ed's discipline card Ed really would be in trouble if found. "Thank god we're on the first floor," Ed said, sliding the window up slowly with Havoc. It was in poor shape and didn't want to open. Too much pressure ran the risk of slamming it open where they might not be able to close it easily, or where it might get stuck. Gentle pressure wasn't enough to keep it moving, and they were wiggling the frame and trying to jiggle their way to success.

"Get out of the way," Havoc whispered, trying to take over. "It's stuck."

"It's not stuck," Ed argued, continuing a quick, but controlled, manipulation by pressing forward and pushing upward. "It's got to be easy." Ed looked up toward the top hinges, and there, drawn on the frame was an alchemy array. Ed froze. "Stop, don't push the window," he ordered, staring at the design. It was half an array, but half a foot higher was the rest of it, so if the window was opened wide enough the array would come together.

"Ed, stop fooling around," Havoc snapped. Ed had gone still where he stood monopolizing the space in front of the window and holding it down. With footsteps approaching Havoc jerked the window open another few inches, looped an arm about Ed's chest, and hopped out. He dropped into the dirt with Ed nearly hyperventilating at his side. "You almost got us caught!" Havoc said angrily. Ed had gone stiff while opening the window and simply stopped functioning!

"He's an alchemist!" Ed cried, keeping his voice down and pointing up toward the window.

"What?" Havoc asked angrily, before looking up with the sound of the office door opening. They both silenced when someone entered 3G slowly as if looking for them. They heard the heavier footsteps of a man approach the desk and heard the ruffle of papers before the occupant walked directly to the window. Havoc drew his legs to his chest and stretched an arm out over Ed to press him firmly back into the building. They were directly below the window and hoping no one would look out. Ed felt the light sweat of anxiety break out on his forehead and Havoc felt it rolling down his shoulder blades. In the silence they heard the sounds of the bookshelf plants being corrected from where Havoc's movements had shoved them slightly to the side. As they listened Ed tried to remember if he'd hit anything when Havoc dragged him out the window, but he wasn't certain! He wasn't expecting it! For a long moment after the plants were moved there was silence before the window was slammed down so hard the glass rattled as if it would bust.

The sound startled them both and they jumped. With the window closed the man returned to his desk and Havoc gestured to the right and began crawling through the mulch to escape the landscaping. Ed followed and together they ran around the side of the building shaking the moment off.

"Holy shit!" Ed exclaimed, near laughter with intense relief pumping through him. Havoc did laugh. He felt soaring pride they had discovered something and cracked open their case. Merrily he ran to the back door and grabbed the handle before stopping when Ed spoke again. "Holy shit," Ed said, sounding devastated. Ed had stopped running and was looking down at his once flawless dress shirt. It was streaked with dirt as if he'd been rolling in landscaping. "Holy shit, I am dead," Ed whispered, brushing at the strains with his hands. This wasn't helping and one patch lightened insignificantly while another smeared. "Havoc, shit, what am I going to do?" Ed cried, abandoning his gentle brushing technique for slapping. Havoc rushed back to Ed's side and tried to dust it off as well. "It's not coming off," Ed whispered, petting the stains.

Havoc stepped back when it was obvious this tactic didn't work and surveyed the boy. The mulch was all about Ed's pants too. "Ed, it's really all over you," Havoc said, looking down at himself. He was dirty as well, but his navy blue was hiding it better. "It's on your ass too man, all over your pants and everything." Ed brought his hands to his pants and tried to dust himself off. "Clean it with alchemy," Havoc suggested.

"I can't!" Ed snapped quietly. "I can't do white!" Ed clapped and grabbed his knees for a brief alchemic reaction that caused a rush of sand to drop to the ground about his feet cleaning his pants perfectly. Ed then returned to the shirt and slapped at the largest stains along the bottom. "Ah shit, shit, shit." Ed tipped his head back with a groan. "It's so noticeable! I-I…" Ed's head snapped upright looking hopeful. "I have another shirt!"

"I'll get it," Havoc said, turning back and jogging toward the door. "Sneak into the downstairs bathroom and stay hidden! I'll bring it to you!"

"It's in my gym locker!" Ed whispered. Together they snuck in heading in opposite directions.

Havoc double checked on his class with Ed's new shirt stuffed deep in his pant pocket. The kids were coming in since class was over. He waited until he could give them a wave and a _'good game!' _before casually walking past Tommy until he was out of sight. Then he broke into a run.

* * *

With Ed standing in his uniform pants and wife beater, Havoc scrubbed Ed's dress shirt in the miniature sized sink provided for children in the downstairs boy's bathroom. "I don't think this is going to come out Ed," Havoc said miserably.

Ed looked annoyed. "This one is all wrinkled." Ed held up the crinkled replacement with annoyance. "I can't believe you put it in your pocket."

Havoc gave Ed a scolding look. "The alternative was I walk around carrying a male student's shirt."

"You could have folded it into a square! No one would have known what it was!" Ed said, turning on the next sink with angry slaps to the handles.

Havoc lifted Ed's dripping filthy shirt from the sink and considered it critically. "Let's throw this one out." It seemed the only logical conclusion. Havoc looked to Ed for his opinion and startled when Ed tossed his new shirt into the sink and soaked it. "What are you doing?" Havoc cried. Just as quickly, Ed pulled it out and snapped it like a picnic blanket.

"Steaming it," Ed said dryly. Ed slapped the shirt to the wall and held it with his elbow so he could clap. Instantly the water heated into a puff of steam, and the tiny dress shirt looked as if it had been pressed and starched.

"Hey. that's a sweet trick," Havoc complimented. He tossed the soggy abomination in his hand to the trash.

Ed walked to the large wall length mirror and slid his dress shirt on and began buttoning it slowly. With the addition of the shirt the automail transformed from a symbol of strength, with its large rounded shoulder, to an out of place disco ball appendage. With the automail leg hidden Ed had the body of a standard male school student, with the exception of the arm. All at once Havoc could see what the Workashire student's saw, and it was disheartening. Maybe within the military, where everyone had a scar, or a missing eye, or an alchemic talent, Ed blended right in, but for his age group, he was too injured. Children typically did not undergo automail surgery when not in a life threatening circumstance until after age fourteen due to the challenge of rehabilitation and the fragile growing state of their bodies. Yet, somehow Ed was growing right along with his, and received surgery when he otherwise would have been denied. With Ed buttoning the bottom of his shirt closed Havoc tried to consider if Ed's situation would have been life threatening.

The bell for a class change rang and together they suddenly realized they'd stayed in the bathroom too long. The sound of kids was approaching, and Ed stepped back and waved for Havoc to get out of sight. "Hide! Hide!" Ed whispered fiercely.

Havoc stepped back and was closing himself into a stall when a small automail hand caught it and Ed wedged in as well. They locked themselves into a stall and waited. _They weren't going to climb up and stand on the toilet unless absolutely necessary._

The bathroom door opened and voices entered.

"I am going to have to cram all night! I don't know how I am going to remember all the vocab, Mr. Inkles is so damn impossible."

"I'll help. You can come over."

"Thanks, but I am grounded."

Ed looked up at Havoc and broke a wide humored grin. _It was ridiculous to be hiding in a bathroom stall. _Havoc pressed a finger to his lips and kept his own smile as composed as possible.

"So I heard a fight broke out in Sam's gym class."

"Really?"

"Really. That kid with the medal arm."

"Whoa, no way?"

"Yeah."

Ed's smile disappeared when he was mentioned, and Havoc tried to see through the crack in the stall door but the kids weren't in sight. "Apparently he goes berserk a lot, and I heard his entire leg is metal too."

"No way."

"Way. Sam said he saw him showering and his leg was metal too." Ed became furious and balled his hands into fists. Angrily Ed gestured toward the stall door before punching his fist into his palm. Havoc understood these mannerisms perfectly. "Think maybe he's a robot?" Ed's anger disappeared like someone pulled a plug and it drained out. The fisted flesh hand dropped out of the automail palm it had punched with Ed's shoulders deflating downward. _A robot? Not even part human? A robot?_

"I don't know, but I think the metal parts are weird. I mean, what happened to his real arm and leg? Are they inside it or are they gone? I heard half of his arm is alive and inside the metal. So if you get close to him, you can smell it rotting. I plan on staying away."

"Ew!" One of the boys began laughing with grotesque humor, and the few others who had come in followed. The bathroom door open and the laughter faded into the hall.

As soon as the room was clear Ed opened the stall door and stepped out. "I gotta go," Ed said softly. It was hard to hear first hand why people were ignoring him, or why they glanced over like they wanted to look and touch but were too afraid to really do either. Ed tucked the automail closer to his side and felt the cool of the metal. It was impossible to hide, it was larger than his real arm, and therefore slightly over the width of his body in some places.

"Hey," Havoc said, stepping free of the stall and giving Ed a kind grin. "I don't think you look like a robot man." Ed was not impressed, and kept a dull expression of exhausted acceptance. "I've always thought the automail…looked kind of cool." Havoc flexed his arm and Ed cracked a weak and fragile smile.

"Thanks Havoc," Ed said dully.

"From now on, no matter what else happens here Ed, I am on your side," Havoc said seriously. He dropped his flexed arm and grabbed Ed's shoulder firmly. "Don't forget that." Directly after these words he snapped his fingers into a gun and Ed broke a laugh.

* * *

Okay that was chapter five. I know you at least had one thought in response to all this…leave it in a review, please? : )

Chapter 6: The _Elephant In The Undercover Mission _will be up next Friday! By the way this is an eleven chapter story so you're almost half way there.


	6. The Elephant in the Undercover Mission

Another Run of Events  
Chapter Six  
_The Elephant in the Undercover Mission_

- mirage -

That afternoon Roy spent some time at the town market with Fuery who was now accustomed to all the faces. On Fuery's break they sat in the car and reviewed maps and plans. With Hawkeye he returned to the site of their destruction and they looked at the meager renovations being handled. The few soldiers on base were pissed, and it was easy to see how annoyed they were. They had sanctioned off a large area of the landscaping around the new hole with orange tape. In the late afternoon Roy returned to their false home with Hawkeye and completed the report on their own vandalism and data before he left to pick Ed up from school.

Ed was wearing his book bag and waiting on the curb of the school's walk as far from the kids as possible when Roy pulled up. As fast as Ed was at getting out of cars, Ed was faster at getting in them when it was time to leave school.

The ride home was silent, Ed left directly to his room when they arrived home, and Roy found all of this very agreeable since Ed seemed to be handling himself. Roy had time to organize all of the data they were strewing about the living room, pile the personnel folders they'd collected onto the kitchen counter near their bread box, and put water on the stove when Ed reappeared. Ed was fresh from a shower with wet hair and already in pajamas. Wearing a loose pair of yellow cotton pants and a gray tee shirt, Ed gave Roy a glance when he entered the kitchen and then ignored him.

"Take out some pasta, will you?" Roy asked, standing in front of the stove. Ed went to the cabinet and grabbed a box. "A lot. Everyone is coming by and they're going to be hungry. I don't want to order in more than what two people would eat. We've made some discoveries."

Ed reached back into the pantry for another box. "What discoveries?" Ed asked dryly.

"Several school employees have some interesting pasts. They've worked other places in the community so we want to limit any connection to places they might still have connections." Ed brought three pasta boxes to the counter and dumped them next to the stove. "Also our little janitor with the military experience…" Roy waited for Ed to make eye contact before continuing. It took a moment, but Ed lifted his eyes with something hinting toward disinterest. "He was in telecommunications." Roy was surprised when Ed didn't comment on this. Instead Ed simply turned the last pasta box on the counter and glanced over the back. "You're very quiet today," he said. "Not still sick, are you?"

Ed shoved the pasta box aside with irritation. Ed walked back to the pantry and took out a bag of pretzels. "When the water is boiled can you go upstairs?" Ed asked, keeping his eyes averted. Ed was too focused on ripping the bag open for Roy's comfort and he was silent. He didn't know what to make of this request, and after a moment Ed snuck a glance his way. "So I can use the phone?" Ed reached into the pretzel bag and pulled out a thin stick.

Roy felt his spirit fall a bit. "Yes, about that," he said softly. He looked into the pot. At the bottom small beads of air were collecting and waiting to come up. "There aren't going to be many times in my life I apologize to you Fullmetal," he said, lifting his gaze. His words had captured Ed's full attention, and Ed's gaze was fixed on him full of dread and growing panic. "But now is one of them because I have to go back on my word." Ed lowered the pretzel stick he was bringing to his mouth. "I am sorry, but I can't allow you to call your brother. We've had too much communication with Central's military area code." Roy was speaking the word military when he was hit with a handful of pretzels.

"_Back on your word!"_ Ed screamed, stuffing his hand into the pretzel bag. "_Back on YOUR WORD!"_

Roy, while in a stunned state of shock, was hit with another handful of pretzels before a pasta box pegged him in the chest and woke him from his trance. "_Fullmetal!" _He felt startled Ed had transformed into what he wanted to describe as a lunatic. "Stop this at once!" he ordered, slamming his fist down on the counter. Ed was fuming, and shot from the counter toward the phone and picked it up. "I said no!" he snapped.

Ed whirled around and pointed the phone forward like a weapon. "Back the hell away from me colonel!" Ed ordered fiercely. "You said I could. You _SAID!_"

"I know what I said!" Roy snapped, skirting the counter angrily. "Now I am saying something different and I have explained why." Ed backed up holding the phone and shook his head. "Don't be stupid Fullmetal. You understand what I am saying to you. _Look at how you're acting!_"

Ed's chest was hitching as if he'd run for miles to reach the phone, and Roy's accusation pinched Ed's facial features inward as if he'd been stabbed. Roy felt sucked into the moment, zeroing in on Ed's expression. _Where had he seen it before?_

"You said I could do this, and you don't know what it's like! I need to do this now!" Ed yelled, trying to fight away the look of pain and frantic alarm crossing his face. "I am all alone out here! I am all by myself! You don't understand!"

Roy advanced, and Ed backed into the wall hugging the phone. "Don't be ridiculous," Roy snapped trying to take the phone, but Ed jerked it away. "I am here with you. I am living in this house with you Fullmetal. Don't tell me you're by yourself." Roy ripped the phone away and Ed flinched. "You act like you're in pain because you can't make a phone call," he said, gesturing to Ed's scrawny damp self which was flush against the wall glaring up at him. "And you're a goddamn State Alchemist! Pull yourself together." Roy hung the phone up angrily and Ed startled with the loud noise and distance hum of the tiny bells that rattled inside with the impact. Roy felt like they were moving at the speed of sound. _What was happening here? What was going on here?_ "What's the matter with you?" he asked, feeling at a total loss.

Ed hitched a tight breath. "Nothing."

"Nothing?" Roy asked, with disdain and confusion. Ed fell silent and dropped his eyes. "Ed?" Roy prompted some type of action. He didn't know what to make of this. Something wasn't right but he needed it explained! He needed a witness, a third person to help interpret this mess. He wasn't capable of figuring it out and that alone was angering him. _Why! What was he not understanding? What variable could he not understand!_

"Okay," Ed said softly, giving a heavy shrug and emptying the air from his lungs. "It's fine I guess." Ed's voice was incredibly unstable. Ed reached up and brushed some of his damp bangs aside. The pressure of his hand sent a droplet of water to his cheek, and suddenly Roy felt like he had captions scrolling along under Ed's chest. _It's not fine I guess_, the translation read. "It will be fine." _It won't be fine._ All at once Roy felt himself sitting there, sitting in the lobby chair. All at once he recognized what before he couldn't make out. He was in the chair and Ed was further up ahead, small body framed in the large threshold of the hallway with an outstretched arm reaching for him. It was the tiny left flesh hand, opening and closing with urgency, and Roy felt himself swallow heavily as if becoming ill. He felt like a fool for not seeing what was directly in front of his face!

_It was not fine. Things were not fine._

Ed was staring at the ground between them, just managing chest height on Roy with the automail tucked up against him like a blemish he was trying to hide. It was no longer strong. It was no longer something Ed looked ready to beat people with. Ed was buckling under the immense weight bearing down on him because he was holding it all with muscles used to sharing the burden. The metal arm was like a wound, a steel weapon stabbed right into Ed's side and exposing him with festering accuracy to all that they were sitting around him. Roy felt slammed back into the lobby, slammed back to his chair, where he never should have left, where he said he wouldn't leave. _It will be fine. I'll be right here._

Roy reached over and picked up the phone. Ed jerked with the sudden movement so close to him, and lifted an untrusting and nervous gaze. "Here," Roy said, dialing rapidly. _He didn't agree with the call, making it argued against his military judgment, but he couldn't stomach it. He couldn't stomach leaving his lobby chair. _"Be quick, and don't say I never gave you anything." Roy offered the phone with the receiver ringing and Ed looked stunned with hesitant disbelief.

Ed lifted his flesh hand slowly, as if any moment Roy would yank the phone away. Ed was cautious of the kindness, and set the phone to his ear before turning to face the counter. Ed didn't speak, and Roy waited to see if he'd be asked to leave, but more and more it seemed Ed lacked the strength to form and enforce demands, and instead seemed to ask in slight off handed ways with no risk of being denied. Now more than ever Roy wanted to know if Ed would ask him to leave in a situation where he knew Ed wanted privacy. He didn't want to believe the overwhelming look of gratitude Ed was saturated with was powerful enough to silence the bullheaded character trait of egocentric priority he knew Edward was good for. If so it seemed to imply penetration to the core, and Roy felt like he was staring at a map where the enemy had crossed his boarders miles ago and somehow he failed to miss the very first thing he should have noticed.

In the silence of the room Roy could hear the phone ringing before suddenly, Alphonse picked up, and the boy's tiny voice floated up from Edward's ear. "Hey," Ed said, stepping closer to the counter with fragile excitement. "It's me." Ed's mannerisms were shrinking him in size. With his arms pulled flush to his sides, his shoulders lifted, and his faced ducked downward Ed appeared more submissive than Roy had ever seen him. Studying this incredible change in demeanor Roy began to realize, if he didn't excuse himself from the room Ed was not going to ask, and granting him this call would have been pointless.

Roy left without explanation and hid alongside the doorway to ease drop. Ed did not rekindle the way Roy was hoping with his absence and instead was letting Alphonse do most of the talking. "That all sounds so great Al," Ed said, with Alphonse's voice going a mile a minute. _Oh, so much to tell nii-san since he's been away. _"I don't really want to talk about it," Ed said, sounding uncomfortable. "It's not important. Just tell me what you've been doing." Roy heard this phrase repeating in his head,_ I don't want to talk about it_, Ed was using this phrase like a shield toward all of them. They were all socially polite, they wouldn't push issues that weren't mission objectives because they were co-workers, but Alphonse was family. He didn't buy this for a minute. "I don't want to Al," Ed said, failing to strengthen his voice. "Cause, it's not important, that's why. Don't badger your older brother." Ed brought a hand to his hair and raked through his wet bangs in quick stressful combs. Alphonse was not deterred. "Cause it's really complicated." Ed dropped his hand to the bottom of his shirt and tugged absently. "I don't really want to go into it now, that's all."

Alphonse wasn't fooled, the same way Mustang wasn't fooled peering into the kitchen and watching Ed break down. Ed was rubbing at his hair, tugging at his clothing, and shifting his weight like he couldn't find comfort no matter what he did. Alphonse was right on the money, even with Ed's blatant physical signs hidden from him. He was relentless with his own worry, telling Ed he didn't sound good, didn't sound right, asking what was happening, what was wrong, why don't you tell me, I know something wrong, it's okay to tell me, I miss you. "I miss you nii-san," Alphonse said, and that was it for Ed. The damn broke quickly, under immense pressure and from one last pebble sized impact.

"I miss you so much," Ed confessed, voice choking outwardly as if the pressure released with Alphonse's final blow came forward with overpowering velocity. Ed dropped his head to the counter so his forehead hit with a dull thud. "I feel _horrible_. I hate being here so much." Ed's voice was tight with overwhelming suffering. "All the kids hate me Al. I want to come home!" Ed was whining, as sure as Roy knew the definition of the word. Ed's pronunciation slipped Ed's long vowels through a raised and squeaky tone with all words running together. "I am but…" Ed silenced when Alphonse cut him off. "I tried! I tried that!" Ed said, knocking his head into the counter only once and gently. "I don't know-_no!_ I didn't do anything! I swear! They hate me anyway!" Ed lifted his head from the counter and Roy felt himself stiffen on sight of the few tears Ed had slipping down his cheeks. _Crying? Ed was crying? _"Al, I swear that's not true. I've tried to be nice with everyone!" Ed insisted. "I am being patient and friendly!" _So, Alphonse gave advice like Hawkeye did he. _"I miss you so much." Ed wiped the tears off his face quickly and stepped back from the counter. Gracelessly he leaned into the wall and let his legs give out so he dropped to his butt. "I am here all by myself. I hate it. In school the teachers are so mean to me. I am so glad we never had to go to school before." Ed was holding the phone with two hands as if he could physically keep Alphonse there with him. Alphonse's small voice was speaking quickly, always throwing in questions, interrupting, and talking until interrupted. "I can't there's no one here," Ed said, wiping his eyes again. "No, Havoc doesn't help. There's not a lot he can do." Ed pulled his knees to his chest and leaned his forehead to them. "Just to call you I had to do so much. They won't let me call you. I don't know how long I have and I fell sick all the time." Ed lifted his head and wiped at the fresh set of tears that let loose. Although he wasn't sobbing openly, they were falling fast enough Mustang understood this to be some type of equivalent. "It's my _automail_." Ed sniffled. "Somehow they know I am different, and I can't fit in, and now we have a suspect, so I don't know how long I'll have to stay. We've easily consumed this much time and haven't produced a thing."

Roy could hear Ed's sad anger and so could Alphonse. Immediately Alphonse adopted a cheerful tone of optimism and took a new approach. This focused on reassuring Ed they'd make a breakthrough, that things would become easier, that he would come visit, but Ed looked drained with this type of optimistic naivety. "I don't even understand why things are as hard as they are," Ed said dryly, wiping his flesh hand across his face and streaking his tears. "I mean, the mission is simple. It's not hard, but stuff keeps getting complicated. I can't focus when I am at the school. I am trying to look for clues, but I have to pay attention to keep the kids away from me." Ed pressed his palm into his right cheeks and wiped his tears towards his ear before laying it over his eyes. "I've started having really bad dreams." Ed sniffled heavily, and Alphonse was remaining silent. "I can't sleep at all. The room is too dark, and weird, I keep having dreams about…" Alphonse interrupted and Ed lifted his gaze to the clock. _Yes, it was likely the colonel was coming back soon._Ed climbed to his feet on wobbly legs and stared at the ticking minute hand like it were the barrel of a gun. "I have to go," Ed said softly, while Alphonse was still talking. Alphonse didn't even slow, and seemed determined to improve Ed's battered tone of voice. "Alphonse," Ed said, clearing his throat heavily. "I have to go, Roy's going to come back and I look like such a girl right now." This comment increased Ed's breathing, and Ed looked down at himself and raked a hand over his shirt before pressing it into his hair as if he felt disheveled and unsightly. "No Aru," Ed snapped. "I am not letting him see me crying on the dumb phone!" Ed whispered harshly, scrubbing at his eyes one at a time with his flesh hand. "I've thought about it," Ed confessed. "I've thought about it a lot because there are payphones at the school, and I want to so bad but…" Ed trailed off and looked back to the clock. The second hand was ticking rapidly. "Just…think of a bunch of cool stuff to tell me for next time we talk, okay?" Ed asked, voice quiet and defeated. Alphonse's tone had relaxed resigning himself to Ed's departure and was now wishing him well. "Okay," Ed managed a faint smile. His tone implied a level of acceptance he was disconnecting the call while simultaneously his body was beginning to react badly with panicking infection. "I'll try," Ed managed. He gripped the front of his tee shirt and began twisting at random while his breathing increased. "Okay, I love you too." Ed disconnected so quickly the movement of phone from ear to receiver was more a striking of the phone into the receiver than a replacement of part A to part B. Ed almost threw the phone from him and ripped his hand back as if disengaging from Alphonse was so difficult the action required a violent nonnegotiable separation rather than a consensual routine. Ed stepped back from the idle phone covering his eyes with both hands and struggling to keep composure. Roy could see the tears cascading down Ed's cheeks, but Ed hadn't made a single noise. The room was deathly silent before Ed cleared his sinuses and dropped his hands to his sides. Quickly Ed walked around the counter to the sink and splashed some water on his face.

Roy felt he'd seen enough. He stepped back to the living room couch. He felt he needed to sit down, and sat back with his arms crossed over his chest. _He didn't know where to start._ He had a lot of questions, and many of them were not questions he could formulate and direct at Ed himself. No, these were adult questions that required inference for him to answer himself. Ed could not properly report on himself as a bias source, and therefore, as the commanding officer, it was his duty to report on Ed's condition. The only problem was…he wasn't entirely sure how to do so. Ed was not the standard soldier on a mission, who he could call into an office and lecture and scold for allowing oneself to become so misguided or emotionally involved while trying to complete a military objective. No, not only was this tactic inappropriate, but Ed seemed as if he were legitimately trying and simply incapable of adequately handling what he was being asked to handle. _Why was this? _Surely having your limbs torn off, replaced, and entering into the military at such a young age had to count for something. Didn't this mean you were capable of a little undercover work? What was the root cause to all of this?

Roy felt deeply concerned. _He was the colonel. _This was one of his men on the field. Yet, there was no normal path or protocol he could recall to direct him. It seemed the hardest variable about this equation was the fact there was no field, and this wasn't a man.

Ed appeared in the kitchen doorway and Roy looked up from where he sat. For a moment they stared at one another before Ed offered a slight indifferent shrug. "I don't feel too well," Ed said, looking appropriate if not a bit exhausted, and sounding acceptable if not for a slight rasp to his voice. "I am just going to go to bed early."

Roy didn't know what to say, and so he said nothing. Ed waited close to thirty seconds for verbal confirmation before simply padding past him toward the stairs. When Ed was a few steps up Roy spoke. "Fullmetal." Ed stopped. "What you need from me…" Roy said, trailing off and adapting a kind and understanding tone. "When you know what it is, I'll make sure it gets to you." Ed was silent and Roy stood up. _Work wouldn't stop for this. _He turned toward the kitchen before giving the empty room a sad but committed smile. "I won't go back on my word again, _ever._"

* * *

Roy bolted upright from his bed with the sound of a scream. He was just reaching stage N1, and so wasn't entirely startled because he recognized the sound of Ed's voice within it. Breathing a bit roughly he propped himself up on his arm and looked toward his open bedroom door. Ed came out of his room rubbing his face and walked quickly to the bathroom.

Roy was becoming familiar with this routine. The nightmares Ed suffered seemed to be growing increasingly worse and increasingly frequent. They happened at an intensity which caused Ed to become loud enough it either work himself or work them both two to three times a night. Patiently Roy waited, listening to the bathroom sink run before Ed returned in route to his room in a slow shuffle while hugging himself and rubbing his arms as if he were cold. It only took a few steps for Ed to notice Roy awake and Ed stopped dead.

"I-I didn't mean to wake you," Ed said quickly, sounding uncomfortable.

Roy held up three fingers. "Three times," he said.

Ed looked away with a bit of irritation and shifted his weight with the embarrassment he couldn't shake. "I am sorry, I am sorry, I am sorry," Ed snapped. Roy smiled, but Ed didn't look up to see it and after speaking continued a quick pace to his bedroom before stopping in the threshold. "Roy?" Ed called, all but hidden in the shadow of his room. The only part still visible was a thin strip of shinning metal, the very edge of Ed's automail capturing the bit of light in the hall. "Did you mean what you said to me?" Ed asked, voice soft with a level of reluctance to reference the topic. "….earlier?"

"I mean everything I say," Roy said. It was the truth, and Ed stepped back into the hall and became a short shadowed figure. "I don't know what you're dreaming, but it sounds awful." He left it at that, and Ed slowly closed the distance to his doorway and leaned into it. "Do you want me to get…a nightlight or something?" he asked. He meant this in all seriousness and he waited to see what Ed would do with the offer. In the darkness he saw Ed shift his weight and he was hoping it was not with insult.

"If it's not a lot of trouble."

"I am sure it's not too hard," he said, beginning a long slow yawn. Ed bumped his metal fist into the doorframe as a departure and left. "Goodnight Fullmetal," Roy said, but Ed didn't answer.

* * *

"You're late," Ed said angrily, climbing into the passenger side and slumping miserably into the chair. "What the hell were you doing that was more important than picking me up?" Ed demanded.

"I am sorry," Roy said, pulling from the school's curb watching the students so he wouldn't run any over. They were everywhere like cockroaches. "I didn't think it would be such a big deal."

"I was all by myself Roy," Ed snapped, throwing his book bag to the floor like a football for a touchdown. "I freakin' hated it." Ed yanked his seatbelt out and buckled before curling up in his seat. Ed pulled his legs to his chest and hugged them with his gaze locked on the passing scenery. Roy looked at Ed's positioning with worry. He had never seen the boy sit like that in the car. "You know that feeling you get when you go into the committee and give your reports?" Ed turned to his knees and rested his forehead on top of them. "I've watched you give your reports. All of them looking at you, none of them on your side?" Roy nodded. _Yes, he did know that feeling. He knew it well._ "You left me in that," Ed said, lifting his head and looking over. "Don't be late to get me."

"I won't," Roy said quickly. He was a bit rattled the internal nerve biting sensation that came from being surrounded by enemies was what Ed felt standing in school. He turned to Ed and gave a solid encouraging nod. "I _won't_," he said, reaching out and grasping Ed's shoulder to strengthen his commitment.

Ed relaxed and a hint of a smile came and went. "Good," Ed said sounding relieved. He dropped his legs and leaned back in his seat.

"How did it go today?"

"Havoc investigated, I covered. I don't know what he has because I didn't have a hall pass," Ed said sourly. "I couldn't stick around."

"We're ordering in tonight," Roy said. "What do you want?"

"Anything?" Ed asked, looking over with excitement.

Roy smiled. "Anything."

* * *

"It was weird. Dirt in jars. Apparently he collects them," Havoc said, forking up lo mein from his white Chinese take out box.

"He drew an array on the window," Ed said, stuffing sugar snap peas into his mouth as he spoke. Ed's flesh fingers were coated in duck sauce because he kept touching everything he was eating. "If we had opened it anymore it would have come together and with my hands on the glass it would have exploded."

"It was a trap?" Hawkeye asked.

"Only for another alchemist," Ed said, snatching a boiled dumpling from the opened container and dropping it into his wonton soup. "So foot soldiers are safe." Ed stabbed his chopstick into his soup quickly and pierced both the floating dumpling and wonton he was aiming for. "Anyone else would have just opened and closed the window." Ed opened his mouth and stuffed both in before retracting the empty stick. "…but I would have been touching an array," Ed said, speaking around the food he was chewing. Hawkeye looked a bit disturbed and Roy wasn't sure if it were in regards to Ed's report, or the way he ate. Still, he had gotten used to it, and Ed didn't make much mess for how creative he was with his food designs.

"That means he's waiting. Aware another alchemist might come," Roy said. He had them all order individually and then ordered a platter, set of boiled dumplings, and egg rolls in addition to the order he placed with Ed. Collecting in the living room, around the coffee table extravaganza, they were able to eat, report, and plan all at the same time. It was picturesque for a military family.

"Or _worried_ one might come," Havoc suggested.

"_Preparing_ for one to come," Hawkeye said.

"Yeah but paranoia doesn't tell us much," Ed said, voice empty of food and flesh hand ready with two more dumplings. "Maybe he's just paranoid and is covering his ass." Ed propped his head in his clean automail hand and sighed. "This means I can't go in the room anymore. He could have them drawn everywhere. I could blow the place up accidentally."

"He's right," Roy said.

"Chief you want to leave some for the rest of us?" Havoc asked Ed, reaching forward and stabbing the last two dumplings with his fork with Ed cramming a piece of Hawkeye's Sweet and Sour Chicken, and one of Roy's General Tso's chicken in between two of them for a boiled-dumpling-Sweet-and-Sour-General-Tso's-chicken-sandwitch.

Roy ignored all of this. _He was eating his chicken like a civilized person._ "Havoc, you're going to be the only one to enter the room from now on, understand?" Havoc had dropped his dumplings into his lo mein and was dangling noodles into his mouth as if he were a baby bird. "Also these jars of dirt..." Roy ignored Havoc's eating as well and looked to Hawkeye thoughtfully.

She was chewing with small dainty movements before taking a sip of the tea she'd made them. "Get one," she said.

"What?" Havoc snapped upright, and spit a noodle back into his take-out box. Ed found this funny and laughed. "Get one? You mean _steal_ one? _Steal one_ and then the crazy guy knows someone's touching his stuff!"

"It could be any student playing a prank," Roy said casually. "You do realize you're becoming this worked up over taking on a _janitor_," he teased.

"We need to know what they are," Hawkeye said, addressing the facts. Ed was cleaning his flesh hand with a napkin using angry pulling gestures as if trying to rip out his own fingers. "I am betting they're not just dirt." Hawkeye took another sip of her tea. "If we're talking about a culprit who knows something about chemicals than it goes without saying they know something about compounds." Everyone was silent and considered this and what it could mean. The greatest threat was that it implied an educated and creative enemy. One using deliberate and planned tactics rather than bold rushed moves. "What is that saying they have about the best place to hide things?" Hawkeye asked rhetorically before sitting her cup down and taking notice Ed had fallen asleep with his head leaning into his automail hand.

"What's the saying?" Havoc asked, still waiting for the punch line.

Roy groaned. "It's best to play the obvious," he said. "To hide something so no one will notice you do it in the most noticeable obvious place." Hawkeye gestured toward Ed, and Roy felt another groan coming on. _Now we were allowed to sleep at the table? During mission planning? _"Tomorrow get one Havoc," Roy said angrily. Ed's head was almost slipping from his hand and Ed was just starting to drool.

"We only have two days left," Hawkeye said. She stood up and began collecting dishes.

"Two days till what?" Havoc asked about his food. "And where the hell is Fuery? How come he never comes to these meetings?"

"Because," Roy said, flatly. "The less he knows the better. We're keeping him on the field and only gathering through him. He's our popper, your packet explained that."

Poppers were their slang terminology for the undercover member who could break free at a moments notice and send for the cavalry or completely reposition. If Fuery were to be reassigned, or sent back to Central, none of their infiltration would be disturbed. "Also, we can't have everyone in the living room here and no one out watching those of us who are_ in_ the living room."

Hawkeye was putting dishes in the sink and she stepped into the living room doorway wiping her hands on a rag. "In two days Ed is expected to begin doing his homework. That's simply out of the question because it will consume too much of his time, and therefore it is this mission's greatest weakness." Havoc glanced at Ed who had gone from eating-frenzy to dead-asleep.

When Ed had arrived home with Roy he had promptly changed from his uniform to a red tee shirt and loose gray pants. Now it seemed highly probable Ed was going to sleep in that outfit, and Roy found this hard to stomach. _It was triggering the list. _

"Let's call it a night," Roy said, sitting his chicken down. _He was stuffed_. Hawkeye cleared Ed's half eaten food and Roy pointed toward the packages Havoc was closing up. "Get your dishes out of here," he ordered. "The first lieutenant is not cleaning up for you."

"The thought had never occurred to me," Havoc said playfully. He deposited his used dishes in the sink, put his food in the refrigerator, and returned to the colonel's side. "How's he doing?" Havoc asked, gesturing to Ed whose head had slid to the bottom of his palm but was still managing to stay up. "Around the house here, I mean."

Roy gave a heavy sigh with this question. It felt disappointing to report the answer was not well. As if this failure was somehow on his end because Ed was living with him and he were the only other thing in the house. Yet, because he couldn't quite figure out why, he couldn't quite figure out how to fix it.

"Colonel?" Havoc asked, sounding a bit disheartened with the sigh his question caused. "Cause…he's not doing so great at school."

Roy gave Havoc an understanding look. He did not want Hawkeye involved in this. They had to hold out a little longer. Ed had to hold out a little longer. "I am hearing you," he said softly. "Know that I am hearing you." At this time, that was all he could do. "Let's find this man Havoc," he said firmly, giving his voice the motivation they needed. _Yes, they needed to find him. Find him and end this._

Havoc cracked a satisfied smile and let himself out with an off-beat joke that left Hawkeye with a facial slump she only wore late on Fridays when everyone was tired from the week and let their guard down.

"I am seeing myself out," she said, slipping into a light jacket while Roy jammed his chicken into the fridge on top of Havoc's box.

"All right!" Roy called to her, sending a quick wave. "Night." He flashed her a quick smile, one with gratitude for her hard work, and she left with one that was glad to receive his. Then Roy walked to his sleeping accomplice and gave Ed's shoulder a shake. "Fullmetal?" Ed slept right through the tremor that threatened to knock his head from his hand. "Fullmetal?" Roy shook harder. "Ed?" Ed's eyes cracked the slightest bit. "Let's go," he said, grasping the top of Ed's arm and slowly pulling the boy to his feet. Ed came easily and Roy felt like he was pulling the tab to a pop up book that left Ed in a limp stand blinking sleepily.

Ed looked around slowly, gathering that everyone had left and their very late dinner had ended. "My…food?" Ed lifted his hands slightly, as if he'd been robbed and Roy nipped this in the bud.

"It's in the fridge," he said quickly. "We didn't eat it." He chuckled with the absurdity, but Ed simply wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and began stumbling for the stairs. "You're exhausted." Roy followed, but Ed kept a strong grip on the railing and although he staggered to his room like a drunk, never once fell.

Roy left to the bathroom and turned the shower on before grabbing his toothbrush. While brushing he walked back to Ed's room feeling comfortable and appropriate with his surveillance because it put his mind to rest. Ed had collapsed face first on his bed and was just dragging himself back out when Roy appeared. Ed walked to the nightlight he had been given, the one now located in the socket closest to the bed, and with his eyes closed half asleep turned it on, and returned to his bed. Ed tossed himself on and snuggled into his pillow with the blankets kicked down by his feet. "Night Al," Ed mumbled. Roy smiled about his toothbrush before freezing when Ed continued. "Night Roy."

_And there it was._ He had been included. He had come after the brother and filled a social void.

Ed was dead asleep when Roy approached his bedside and, with the toothbrush in one hand, pulled Ed's blankets up to his shoulders. "Goodnight Ed."

* * *

Roy felt something foreign deliberately touch him while his world was still the blackness of his eyelids and immediately, and with his eyes still closed, his hand found his gun and he tossed it forward in full aim. He bolted up in bed following his arm so he was sitting with it extended in full aim when his eyes opened, and there behind the barrel was Ed with his hands raised and his expression tight with shock.

"It's me colonel," Ed whispered, giving his hands a slight wiggle to make it very apparent they were raised in surrender. "It's me!"

Roy dropped his arm to the bed and released the air in his lungs when he recognized the voice and face as _friendly._ Ed didn't move, and Roy swallowed roughly and ran his free hand over his face. "What's wrong?" he asked dryly, looking to the clock on his end table. "It's four in the morning Ed." He reached to his nightstand and returned the gun. "What?" he asked. "What is it?" His eyes felt heavy and he had one closed and one cracked just enough to see the boy.

Ed still hadn't spoken and instead looked as if he were preparing to give a bad report. His brow was knitting together with the perfect mix of informed dread Roy was familiar with when Ed spent too much, knew he spent too much, and was getting his bearings right before he reported the spending.

"Can I…" Ed whispered, voice almost too faint to hear before clearing his throat. "Can I sleep with you?"

Roy made a face of disgust. "What?" he demanded flatly.

"Can I sleep in here?" Ed rephrased. "With you?" Ed raised his voice slightly so he would be better heard, but as a result it was growing weaker. "I…can't sleep." Roy opened both eyes to better gauge the situation and once he fully looked at Ed he realized Ed did not look half asleep the way he felt. Ed looked wide awake, and not just alert, but skittish.

"The nightlight is not helping?"

"Stop teasing me Roy," Ed said, with only the slightest hint of irritation. "You're not allowed to tease people at four in the morning." This was a desperate plea for compassion in disguise.

Roy flopped back into the sheets with exhaustion and tossed the covers back on the side closest to Ed.

"Thanks," Ed whispered, crawling in eagerly before stopping with sudden uncertainty. "You're…You're not sleeping naked or anything like that, right?" Ed asked. Roy cracked an eye and plucked at the front of the tee shirt he was wearing. "Underwear too, right?"

"Get in or out."

Ed lay down and covered up before taking the pillow left to him in a hug and sighing with content. Roy ignored this, and with his eyes already closed, embraced the return of sleep with nothing but the sound of Ed's breath at his side. It was constant, like a passive alarm clock prohibiting him from escaping. First ten, thirty, then forty minutes. The more Ed breathed the more Roy awoke before he was lying there staring up at the ceiling feeling rather awkward. _This couldn't look good for the military_. Roy turned to his right and looked at Ed. The boy was hugging his pillow innocently and drooling. _This was not a good idea. _It wasn't a good idea to ever allow himself, or Fullmetal, into situations like this which could later be misconstrued badly._ This was not okay. _With Ed's breathing waking him, in hindsight Roy was a little astonished he agreed to something like this. _Did Ed really look so harmlessly persuasive standing along side the bed in his pajamas we just give in to things?_ Still, the sight of Ed looking so calm and deep in sleep was relieving, and Roy rolled to his side and tried to wait for sleep focusing on the positive perspective no one would ever know about this and nothing would come of it.

Sleep was extremely close when Ed rolled over and kicked his blankets down. Roy startled back from Ed's movement as if Ed were a rolling Bottle Bomb.

"Al, you're making me hot," Ed mumbled, pushing the blankets down with his feet before sprawling out like a star fish. Roy looked at the limp flesh hand that slid over and stopped a few inches from his side. Keeping Ed on his side of the bed was important, and also seemed to be understood by an awake version of Ed who shared his desire to stay apart. Now asleep Ed disregarded the boundaries in the bed and had sprawled out. Roy felt torn between shoving Ed out of the bed, and waking him with orders to stay still and in his spot. However, both meant waking the boy and Roy was hesitant because Ed had been sleeping badly enough you could see it on his face in the morning and at night.

Ed's flesh hand gave a sudden twitch curling the fingers inward just as Ed's breathing picked up. Roy eyed this curiously. _Was this how it started?_ Gradually Ed's breath was increasing as if he had moved to a fast walk and now a run. _The nightmares were coming._ Ed flinched again, harsh enough it rocked his entire bed frame and Roy felt a tremor. Cautiously he looked at the automail arm, the heavy piece of metal which could easily give him a nasty right hook or black eye if Ed forgot he was sleeping with someone and woke up unexpectedly.

"Stop," Ed whispered, dead asleep and dreaming. "No, stop."

Roy was shocked clear and understandable words were how Ed talked in his sleep. "Ed?" he whispered.

"Stop," Ed repeated with more force, before whipping his head to the side. "Al…help stop…" Ed mumbled, curling his arms in to his sides with an expression of desperation lifting his eyebrows in sorrow as he slept. "Help, help, help, please help." Ed began panting this word and Roy snatched Ed's flesh hand before he knew he was doing so. Ed's dream came suddenly like a tidal wave and consumed him. All of his muscles had tensed, and all rest seemed abandoned. Ed was now in an asleep state of suffering, and Roy squeezed down on Ed's hand. "I didn't do anything-I-I-didn't-stop-stop."

"Ed, it's all right," Roy said firmly. His tone was an order, a direct order, and exactly like that he gave from behind his desk. "Ed, you are all right." Ed's breathing hitched for a moment when Roy spoke and then began slowing as if Ed had stopped his running upon Roy's command. Ed lay catching his breath for a minute before quickly rolling over to his stomach. Roy looked down at Ed with the boy now even closer to him. They were mere inches from each other and his hand still held the small flesh palm, but he no longer feared the misconstrued sexual implications he did before. Suddenly, the same right he felt to survey and approve of Ed's activities within the house, applied again, and he laid a warm hand on Ed's back and felt the boy's heart beating rapidly inside his chest. "No one will harm you while you are here," he said softly. Ed was not entirely relaxed and his forehead was still knit with worry and his mouth slightly open as if he'd yell. "You are safe here Ed. Roy will help you." Roy began a soft stroke down Ed's back from his shoulder blades to the bottom of his chest. Ed was sweating heavily and Roy felt Ed's immense heat radiating into his palm. "Hawkeye will help you, Havoc will help you, you are not in any harm." Ed's expression was relaxing and Roy gently brushed a few of Ed's damp bangs from his forehead to study the small face. The automail had curled up around Ed's head as if to protect it, and the flesh arm was tucked tight to Ed's chest save the small hand. "What you need, you need to communicate it to me Ed," Roy whispered. "I am not a mind reader. You have to talk to me." Ed gave a large inhale and hiccupped slightly at the hilt of it. "Ed," Roy said quietly, before silencing when Ed lifted his head the slightest bit. Ed was almost entirely asleep but was waking to his name, and Roy shifted back and pretended to be asleep.

"What," Ed mumbled, cracking an eye and glancing around with drowsy confusion. Roy assumed Ed would lay back down as soon as he realized it was still four in the morning and no one was talking to him, but instead their was movement he couldn't place. Curiously, he cracked an eye and Ed was stripping his tee shirt off before throwing it over the side of the bed. "Freakin' hot," Ed mumbled, flopping back into the pillow and hugging it. "Night Roy." Ed was out as soon as he hit the pillow, and Roy smiled, but didn't answer.

* * *

It was unanimously agreed upon that Ed would not reenter 3G due to the potential danger of alchemy focused traps. However, it was also unanimously agreed upon that someone other than Havoc had to go and be there as a witness and information gatherer.

"Havoc, just grab the jar," Ed whispered vehemently, standing in the doorway of 3G and keeping the door propped open with his foot. Havoc had snuck inside and Ed followed. _There was no one else. He had to come. _Now Havoc was their man inside and Ed was known as the pigeon, having full visual and capable of swooping in or out. "Dammit, hurry up, you're going to get us caught!" Ed had his eyes trained over his back at the empty school hallway and kept fast glances to and from Havoc who snuck into 3G, went for the jars of dirt, and now didn't seem to know which one to take.

Ed and Havoc were both wearing wires connecting them to Hawkeye who was outside the school in the parked SUV with Roy. She was listening to them travel through the school hallway, heard them enter the room, and Ed was now beginning to sound panicked. "Ed relax," Hawkeye said. "The colonel is standing watch, no one is coming." This was the truth. Through a perfect parking job and military grade binoculars it was easy to watch the entire length of the hallway leading into up to the danger zones for Ed and Havoc.

"I have a bad feeling about this Hawkeye," Ed complained. "I don't want to be here." Havoc was thumbing through the stack of papers littering the janitor's desk with his other hand sitting on a jar of dirt like he wasn't yet ready to take it and run. "Havoc, take the damn jar," Ed ordered angrily.

"Hawkeye, he's got blueprints of the school and town just like us, this is it," Havoc said, whispering with excitement. "This is our guy. Why else would you have this! We found him!" Havoc added both hands to the desk and was reading as quickly as he could. _They couldn't take documents. Students who played pranks did not take important documents, they took silly items._ "I've got zoning, lists of faculty, lists of students, and a list of words I don't know. Big words, like medical terms or chemicals."

"Show that to Ed," Hawkeye said quickly. "Ed can you read that list?" Roy glanced from his binoculars toward Hawkeye when she sat up straighter in her chair. She had her right hand overlapping her headset and was staring intently toward her lap. _They had him! _"Ed, enter the room and read the list, do not touch anything."

"Dammit!" Ed cursed, slipping in and looking at the paper Havoc flashed to him.

"Chief, read that while I search," Havoc said, continuing to move and bobbing the paper about. Ed was shifting his weight to keep his line of sight equal to the paper and becoming angry.

"These are base compounds. A list of base compounds," Ed said, glancing nervously toward Havoc who ripped out a desk drawer and was thumbing through a fat packet of something. "They look to be in no specific order."

"What do they look like they're being used for?" Hawkeye asked. She was now taking notes of everything they said they were finding.

"I don't know, they're scribbled in pencil, there is no way to guess," Ed said, sounding frustrated. "Hawkeye we've been in this room too long. Someone is going to notice us missing." _Just how many times could the gym teacher and one student slip away on an entire class?_

"Ed, if those are chemicals than this looks like more of them?" Havoc said, wedging the fat stack of papers he had been trying to read from the desk drawer.

"Ed, can you remember the contents of the list you've read?" Roy asked.

"I can try."

"Hawkeye we're making progress," Roy said happily. He was smiling into his binoculars when a teacher entered the hall. "You've got company coming. Time to wrap it up."

"Havoc, place everything back the way it was," Hawkeye said. Havoc was trying with Ed gesturing angrily toward the desk drawer where papers did not want to fit and now needed to be wedged back inside.

"How much time?" Ed asked.

"Sixty seconds, then your company will have visual of the door."

Havoc slammed the papers back into the drawer, corrected the desk, and grabbed the jar of dirt he had originally targeted. Quickly, with Ed standing at the door beckoning he move faster, he skirted the desk and from the corner of his eye noticed what looked like the handle of a weapon. A gun or a knife, he wasn't sure, but what happened was instinctual. "I think our target is armed," Havoc said, transferring the jar of dirt to Ed's hands and reaching for the black butt sticking out from the one pile he hadn't gotten to yet. "Hold this Ed."

Ed's hands shot out to take the glass jar tipping into his possession even while entirely against it. "_NO!"_ Ed cried. "I _can't!_" By the time he was speaking the word 'can't' the jar was landing in his hands and the moment it touched the quick blue alchemic flash sparked and the jar exploded.

Havoc cried out and looked away shielding himself with his arm and falling back into the desk. Ed felt the explosion propel him back into the door as forcefully as if he was thrown. He had lifted his automail to his face and eyes, but that hand only protected so much. Already he could feel the tight and very hot sting of open wounds from where the glass had slid by like knives, and imbedded in other places.

"_What happened!"_ Hawkeye cried.

Havoc dropped the arm he'd brought to his face and there were shards of glass sticking from it making his arm look scaled with crystal. "_Shit._" Havoc lifted his gaze to Ed who had both eyes closed in a tight wince. Glass had blasted into Ed's flesh arm, past his neck and hit a few places on his chest. Many pieces hadn't aimed to stab and were simply resting on Ed until he stood up from his slumped position on the door and looked down at himself. The glass slipped off and fell to his feet in fat twinkling shards and sparkling dust.

"Oh…my god," Ed whispered, stepping over it carefully and staggering forward on autopilot. His hands were full of the dirt that had shot out into the room coating them and everything else with a fine powder.

"Havoc, Ed, _listen to me,_" Hawkeye said sharply. "Get out of the room _now._" Havoc swallowed roughly and felt shock wearing off with her order. "_Now, _do you hear me?_ Now."_

Havoc turned and looked toward the window, their last escape, and grabbed Ed's wrist.

"Careful!" Ed cried, stumbling forward as Havoc ran to the window. "There is glass all up my arm!" Havoc grabbed the base of the window and yanked but it didn't budge.

"The windows stuck!" Havoc cried, trying not to cough in the hovering dust.

Ed was watching the air in the dirt drift closer to the ceiling and fire alarm with panic. "We've got to air this room, we're going to set off all the alarms!" Havoc was yanking on the window before clearing the items from on top of the bookshelf with his arm and using his shoulder. They were way past trying to hide someone had entered. It would now be clear to whoever entered that someone did arrive, and that someone was an alchemist.

"Ed grab that weapon," Havoc said, pointing toward the desk and the butt of whatever was laying there. "I need to pry the window up, he must have done something to lock it down!" Ed grabbed the handle on the desk and pulled out a large twelve inch knife with shock.

"Who the heck brings this to a school?" Ed asked, handing it over. Havoc stabbed the knife into the bottom of the window sill and tried to work it like a carjack. With the glass and dirt beneath his feet he lost traction and slid back into Ed almost immediately. "Careful!" Ed cried. Havoc's weight pressed Ed flush to the desk and the hand Ed jerked back to stabilize himself sparked the next alchemic reaction.

* * *

Phew, chapter 6 up. Hope you're enjoying a little cliff hanger : ) Please leave a review!

Chapter 7: Explosion, will be up next Friday. _Oh, we're getting to all the good stuff now!  
_As we come ever closer to our end here, I am asking if anyone would be interested in expressing what they would like posted next?

Before I took my small holiday, I had planned to offer a small selection, and summary for each, to give you guys a chance to voice what you wanted to read next. Recently somone supported the idea of taking suggestions so...anyone interested? I have several FMA stories ready to go (two I am sooooo excited to share, I almost feel too nervous to post!) One took an incredible amount of painstaking effort, and the other is lots of fun and has explicit scenes 's ridiculous rating system tries to imply are inappropriate. (like we don't do that crazy stuff in real life : )

Anyone interested ins haring their thoughts, let me know! (and of course your thoughts on the current story are always cherished, so please feel free to share those as well). Thx.


	7. Explosion

Another Run of Events  
Chapter Seven  
_Explosion_

- mirage –

_Chapter Six Recap:  
_

* * *

Havoc turned and looked toward the window, their last escape, and grabbed Ed's wrist.

"Careful!" Ed cried, stumbling forward as Havoc ran to the window. "There is glass all up my arm!" Havoc grabbed the base of the window and yanked but it didn't budge.

"The windows stuck!" Havoc cried, trying not to cough in the hovering dust.

Ed was watching the air in the dirt drift closer to the ceiling and fire alarm with panic. "We've got to air this room, we're going to set off all the alarms!" Havoc was yanking on the window before clearing the items from on top of the bookshelf with his arm and using his shoulder. They were way past trying to hide someone had entered. It would now be clear to whoever entered that someone did arrive, and that someone was an alchemist.

"Ed grab that weapon," Havoc said, pointing toward the desk and the butt of whatever was laying there. "I need to pry the window up, he must have done something to lock it down!" Ed grabbed the handle on the desk and pulled out a large twelve inch knife with shock.

"Who the heck brings this to a school?" Ed asked, handing it over. Havoc stabbed the knife into the bottom of the window sill and tried to work it like a carjack. With the glass and dirt beneath his feet he lost traction and slid back into Ed almost immediately. "Careful!" Ed cried. Havoc's weight pressed Ed flush to the desk and the hand Ed jerked back to stabilize himself sparked the next alchemic reaction.

* * *

With the sudden flash Havoc and Ed ducked, covering their faces and heads, before watching a hair thin crack split off the top of the desk, travel down across the floor, up the far wall, and directly toward the light. Upon impact the bulb exploded, the fire alarm sounded, and the sprinklers went off.

"Break the window! Break the window!" Ed cried, fisting his hair as the water came pouring down. Havoc grabbed the knife and suddenly the window was going up and the colonel was on the other side lifting it.

"This way!" Roy cried, reaching in. "Ed! Come here!" Ed ran for the window and lifted the sill carefully. The array at the top was still present and Havoc was helping to wedge the bottom with Hawkeye speaking to them over the wire.

"All the alarms have been sounded. Students and teachers are entering the halls and they're sweeping the rooms to check for children."

Ed wasn't willing to wait on the window. "I can fit!" He cried, ducking down and squeezing his head through the slim seven inch space. "I can fit!" Roy reached in and hooked his grip beneath Ed's arms and yanked.

"Havoc, go to the door and open it! Pretend you're sweeping the room!" Hawkeye ordered.

"Go!" Roy ordered. Havoc stepped back from the window, bleeding and dripping with water and ran to the door. He opened it and stepped out into the chaos just as Roy pulled Ed's legs free of the room.

Roy dropped to his knees in the landscaping with Ed panting in his lap. The water was making the blood look worse, staining Ed's shirt and leaking down his arm. "Fullmetal, can you walk?" Roy asked, eyes darting from the shards of glass to the random cuts as Ed caught his breath.

"Are you kidding?" Ed rasped, giving a heavy cough before opening his eyes and wiping his wet bangs from his face. "I can run."

They took off through the landscaping and toward the back side door Ed and Havoc had snuck into last time. This time an idling SUV was waiting and the moment they approached Hawkeye opened the side door for them. They scurried in and Hawkeye slammed the door with Roy climbing into the driver's seat and Ed kneeling on the floor panting.

"Everything freaking blew up! The jar! The light! The desk! The glass!" Ed was going a mile a minute, holding his bleeding flesh arm with his automail. "I _told_ Havoc not to give me the jar! _I told him!"_ Hawkeye was moving quickly as Roy backed them up at an inconspicuous speed and took route to the market. Hawkeye pulled Ed's mission duffle bag from the trunk, the first aid kit from the front, and was ripping things out at the speed of light. "How am I going to hide these cuts!" Ed cried, staring down at his arm.

"Ed, don't panic," Hawkeye said firmly, ripping a bandage package open with her teeth and rapidly patting the backseat she was using as a table with her hand so Ed would know to sit there. "Are you all right?" Ed pulled himself up with his automail and slid into the seat dripping and cradling his flesh arm. "The glass doesn't look deep, I am sure it will be okay."

"The glass isn't deep!" Ed snapped angrily. With the automail he grabbed the fattest piece, a three inch slab stabbing in just above his elbow, and ripped it out. "I've got it all over me!" Ed threw the piece to the floor and grabbed the next piece and did the same. "I only have one flesh arm! This doesn't make life easy!"

"Ed." Hawkeye was trying to intervene but Ed was viciously pulling glass from himself as easily as if he were plucking off blades of grass. "Ed, please stop putting glass where I am sitting."

Hawkeye snatched Ed's hand and stopped him. "I know," she said softly, breaking the momentum they were caught inside. It was dangerous, moving at a velocity of violence, and with one statement, and one movement, she resolved it. "_I know." _She never said what she knew when she made this comment, but Roy had heard it and felt it before. He pulled into the market and parked in the back before turning around in his chair to look at the first lieutenant. She was sitting before the back passenger side holding first aid supplies and Ed's bleeding wrist with him staring at her. "We'll fix it all." _That was all she ever had to say._

Roy got out and opened the back door interrupting the momentary peace. "Let's go."

Fuery came out the back and looked shocked on sight of them. Roy in his business professional attire, Hawkeye with her infiltration head gear, and Ed soaked and bleeding. "What happened?" Fuery choked, holding the back employee entrance open for them.

"Havoc caused an explosion," Ed reported sourly.

Hawkeye gave Ed a scolding glance. "This was an accident. It's no ones fault."

"Fuery, can you get us some medical supplies?" Roy asked, shutting the door behind them and testing that it was locked. The back of the market had a thin rectangular store room of supplies, and this was Fuery's base away from base. "We need some alcohol and bandages."

"Aisle four, got it," Fuery said, leaving quickly.

Ed limped to a pallet of canned peas and sat down holding his arm. Hawkeye followed and sat Ed's open duffle bag at his side. "Ed, you need to change from your wet clothing, and we need to clean your wounds."

Ed looked at his duffle bag with exhaustion before lifting his gaze to Hawkeye with a bit of embarrassment. "I need privacy to do that Hawkeye."

Roy checked his watch, and then his intercom to make sure it was still connected before smiling with Ed's comment. He looked up in time to see Hawkeye's expression relax with a bit of surprise because soldiers did not have many qualms about fixing wounds and how they were fixed. Clothing came off, bandages went on, that was the world of war. Soldiers were not prepubescent boys who were nervous around women. They _wanted_ women, and if that desire could only be fulfilled through a female nurse well, than that was awesome.

Hawkeye set the first aid supplies she was holding at Ed's side, and handed him the bandage she had opened before giving him a smile. Ed wasn't certain what she was doing and was watching her cautiously. _The first lieutenant could give orders that had to be followed._

"Sir, I am going to go correct the inside of the car," Hawkeye said, giving a fast solute and heading to the door. She was a graceful woman, and Roy let her leave before walking to Ed and stopping in front of the boy.

"Are you all right?" he asked. Ed gave him an irritated smile. "Let me see your arm." Ed extended it carefully and Roy cupped Ed's elbow and yanked a piece of glass free.

"I…" Ed flinched with the glass being removed. "I am worried about Havoc."

"Havoc will be fine," Roy said confidently. His fingers were pinching a shard to be pulled free when he lifted his gaze to Ed's and gave the boy a smile. "He's a good liar." Ed snorted with a bit of humor before flinching when the glass was taken out. "I was most worried about you." Two of Ed's flesh fingers were sliced. "We heard the explosion." Roy dug a small but powerful magnifying glass from their first aide kit and lowered it to Ed's arm. "They were noticeable." He was hoping there would be nothing sparkling inside Ed's cuts. They didn't really have time to pull out the tweezers and start digging diamonds out of the boy's flesh. "We knew at once things had gone wrong." Satisfied Roy sat the magnifying glass aside and grabbed the cotton balls Hawkeye had brought in. "I am glad you're safe. You're vital for this mission."

"I know," Ed said softly, sounding sorry he was so vital. _Vital people were never excused from anything._

Fuery returned and brought ample supplies. He made sure he wasn't needed, and then left to prepare some food for them and to watch the door. The back door could be locked, but the front door should not be.

Roy opened the alcohol with Ed holding his arm out looking tired. "We'll have your wounds hidden. It won't be perfect, but it will be acceptable." He wet four cotton balls, and holding them together, dabbed soggy amounts into Ed's arm.

"Ow," Ed whispered, tipping his head back and closing his eyes. "How acceptable?"

"Just try and keep your arm from the lime light."

Ed gave a heavy sigh and ignored the alcohol which added to the water so dripping from Ed's fingers were fat pink drops. "The entire room was booby trapped Roy."

"I know," Roy said softly.

"I didn't even touch anything with two hands."

"I know." Roy gestured to Ed's chest and Ed unbuttoned his dress shirt and opened it so they could look at the small cuts, one just under and one just on his collar bone. They coated those with alcohol and then Ed was peeling out of his wet shirts and drying off with paper towel Fuery provided. Ed was pressing wads of paper towel to his head to dry his hair with his arm extended for Roy who was placing bandages when Hawkeye opened the back door and leaned in.

"Sir, the phone at your house is ringing," she said.

"Would Havoc call?" Ed asked, but Hawkeye shook her head and began readjusting her radio piece back to her ear.

"Does your ear piece still work, Ed?" she asked into the microphone and Ed nodded when he heard her voice from his equipment. "Good, I'll send word, or come get you," She said, leaving and shutting the door behind her. Seconds later they heard the SUV engine turn over and Ed gave Roy a questioning glance.

"She's taking the car?"

Roy chuckled. "The first lieutenant gets the car when she wants it Fullmetal." Roy smeared alcohol over the slits in Ed's fingers and Ed hissed.

"You know, these injuries suck ass Roy. You don't know what it's like living with one arm. One arm which is now all injured." Ed looked at the bandages on his arm with disdain. Some of them were so close together it made more sense simply to wrap the entire arm.

"The cuts aren't deep. Give them two days. We'll get you a gym note," Roy said, keeping his tone light and humorous.

"Oh goodie." Ed was not impressed, and wiggled his fingers slowly with a deep wince. "This look stupid." Ed stated the obvious well, and Roy laughed as he unraveled enough gauze to wrap Ed's fingers. "I am going to look like a mummy."

"It's temporary."

"Colonel?" Ed's ear piece sounded with Hawkeye's voice, and in the silence they both heard it.

Ed lifted it to his ear. "It's Edward."

"Is the colonel there?" Hawkeye asked, sounding impatient. Ed offered the ear piece and Roy brought it to the side of his own head.

"Hawkeye."

"They're saying the explosion was a bomb, and that someone placed it in the school as a prank," Hawkeye said, reporting quickly.

"Great," Roy said with disgust. _Things just kept getting better. _"And Havoc?"

"His cover story is that he heard the first explosion and ran for the room and caught the butt of the second. He did a good job, it went nicely." Roy was pleased. "But if Edward doesn't get back to school they're going to know. They're doing head counts to make sure everyone is there and safe. It looks like there was some typical chaos with all classes being released at once, and since Ed was in Havoc's class that's helping to slow things but we can't have him missing."

"Doesn't Havoc have a cushy set up with the nurse?" Roy asked. Ed lifted his gaze from the bandage he was taping over his collar bone as if some form of spine tingling told him things weren't going in the direction he'd prefer.

"I believe so," Hawkeye said.

"Than that will be our card in."

* * *

Havoc opened the nurse's office door in one quick stride. "Darleen!" he cheered, and given the events of the afternoon she looked startled with the assault on her office, and further surprised to see Havoc's grinning, and bandaged, face. "Did you see the commotion or what?" Havoc asked happily.

Darleen stood quickly from her desk, a clipboard in hand. "James, I can't believe it." Quickly she skirted her desk. "I heard everything! I hope you're okay!"

Havoc gave a boisterous shrug. "I can take it," Havoc said, giving his arm a quick playful flex before turning around and gesturing for Ed to enter. "You remember my gym buddy, right?"

Darleen looked to Ed and gave him a kind smile. "Hello Edward. I hope you've been feeling better since I last saw you."

Ed gave Darleen a polite smile. "Thanks."

"He was with me," Havoc said, pointing to Ed's cut arm. They had removed all the bandages on the way over and although the naked cuts were clean, Ed looked like someone had gotten to him with a red sharpie marker. "He followed me when I heard the first blast." Darleen looked horrified. "Think you can clean this trooper up some?"

Darleen beckoned Ed in with frantic waves and gestured to her chair. "Oh Edward, I am so sorry. Take a seat sweetheart." Darleen rushed into the back room and Ed plopped down in her chair and tipped his head back to rest. _And so began the charade. _"I can't believe this!" Darleen returned to Ed's side loading cotton balls with alcohol. Ed opened his mouth to protest before surrendering with a look of defeat and obediently offering his pre-disinfected arm for another round of disinfecting. "Did anyone call his parents yet?" Darleen was dabbing over Ed's cuts at lightening speed.

"I was just about to," Havoc said calmly.

"Oh my gosh," Darleen whispered, trying her best to be gentle but her hand was nearly shaking with the condition of one of their students. "He has cuts all over his arm, Edward really," Darleen said, pausing in her work to lift her gaze to Eds. "We are so sorry this happened." Darleen set her cotton balls aside and gently touched Ed's cheek below his eye. "Ed, does your eye bother you? It looks pink."

"My eye?" Ed asked, lifting a hand to touch it. Darleen stopped it right away.

"No, don't touch that." Quickly she was digging through her supplies and Havoc stepped forward and took a look.

"She's right Ed, your eye looks pink."

Ed again lifted his hand to touch it and Darleen intercepted. "Okay Ed, don't touch your eye. We'll have to have it looked at. I am worried you might have something inside there." Ed groaned. "I am hoping it's just irritated by the dust and not pink eye."

"What's pink eye?" Ed asked, moving to touch his eye once again before catching himself. "Is that really bad?"

"No." Darleen gave her head a dismissive shake. "Don't let yourself worry about that. We're going to call your parents and have you sent home anyway. If you really do have pink eye you'd just need to be out while you're contagious."

"Oh great," Ed said sarcastically, flashing Havoc a dark look. He couldn't do reconnaissance from home. That had been made very clear to him.

"Don't worry about your studies," Darleen said kindly. "I am sure we can have this all taken care of." Ed did not look convinced, and they all looked up when the Nurse's Office door opened and Marianna entered and set her hands on her hips with a dramatic sigh.

"Edward Elric, I've been looking for you," Marianna said, displeasure evident in her gaze and tone.

Ed was startled with her sudden arrival, and with this declaration raised his eyebrows in a look of panic. "I-I am being sent home," Ed said quickly, before pointing to his eye. "I have ink eye."

Marianna gestured Ed leave the office. "This is serious Edward. Pink eye can wait."

"Do you want me to call his parents?" Darleen asked, looking a bit worried Ed was being uprooted so quickly.

Marianna gave a shake of her head and waited for Ed to obey her order. After a tense moment of indecision, in which Ed analyzed all other options for escape and found none, he slid from his chair, shot Havoc a dark eye flare and mouthed "call Roy" before exiting under Marianna's arm. "Don't worry about it," Marianna said, shutting the office door behind her.

Once alone in the half Marianna looked down at Ed's irritable expression and tightened her own. "I suspect you already know what this is about Edward." Ed gave his head a soft shake and Marianna gave a sniff of disgust. She began a quick pace toward her office and Ed followed. "I don't appreciate games, Edward."

"No, ma'am I don't know what this is about," Ed muttered irritably.

"Someone saw you Edward," Marianna said. She paused in her walk and looked down at the short boy. He returned her gaze uneasily but cautiously did not turn to face her. "And I'll tell you there is one thing I don't tolerate in this school," she said, lifting a finger before continuing her pace, "and that's violence."

Ed felt his stomach turn over with this statement. There was plenty of violence running around him. _She could have seen anything!_ The students made it incredibly clear they were not on his side so it's possible someone reported something he'd done. _There was plenty of that as well. _It was also hard to remember _profanity_ could no longer be _vocabulary_, and incredibly hard not to shove and hit when other people were touching you, or trying to touch parts of you they thought you couldn't feel and wanted to investigate because curiosity was getting the better of them. At those times Ed knew exactly where he wanted to put their curiosity, and he tried to make that happen in one blow. So now, trying to match the angry principal's speed of walk, Ed felt as doomed as if she'd just said she wouldn't permit automail. One way or another she'd have some form of evidence, she seemed thorough enough to at least do that. There had not been one time he was called or escorted to her office where she didn't have a phone call or note from another teacher. _It seemed, like them, she investigated things._

They walked in silence until reaching her office and Marianna opened the door for Ed and watched him enter with the cold eyes of a hunter. She had him, and they both knew it. The office was like an open bear trap and Ed felt as if he was stepping into it just as she closed the door behind them. "I'll give you this opportunity to explain yourself," she said, walking to her desk.

Ed went to the right chair facing the mammoth wooden alter that was twice the size of Roy's and sat. This chair felt like his chair. It was the one he always sat in.

"Can I call my dad?" Ed asked, trying to keep his nervousness from his voice. This was an arena where he had a significant disadvantage.

"No." Marianna snapped, annoyed this was being brought up so soon. "He's already being called Edward." Ed felt a rush of relief. Roy at least seemed capable of playing this woman's head games as if he were one of the heard. "So?" Marianna asked, sitting back in her chair and giving her left hand an absent wave to the side. "Anything to say?" Ed didn't know where to start. She hadn't given him enough to know if he would be explaining or divulging. "Nothing?" Marianna asked, tone becoming incredibly disgusted with the silence. Ed heard this clearly and shifted his weight uncomfortably. Obviously staying quiet was making things worse, but addressing the wrong thing might give her a violation she didn't know she had. "It's amazing you have nothing to say for yourself now," Marianna said, sitting forward and linking her hands. "You don't want to tell me why you felt it necessary to destroy part of this school?"

Ed didn't know how to interpret that question. "What do you mean?" he asked softly. He had learned early on when she asked if he had anything to say for himself that explaining, asking additional questions, or voicing his opinions the way he did at the office, simply worked him into more trouble. The only safe card was pansy ass silence.

Marianna lifted her eyebrows with surprise he's retort with such a brass question. "Why did you put a bomb in the downstairs custodian closet?" she asked, sounding bitterly annoyed she was having to ask this so bluntly.

"What!" Ed cried. This question shot out and slapped him._ A bomb in the what! In the where?_

"Do not raise your voice to me young man," Marianna snapped, she gave her desk a quick reprimanding slap to punctuate her order and Ed broke out nodding in wobbly agreement.

"But I didn't!"

"Edward!" Marianna snapped, slapping her hand down again.

"No, I didn't! I don't know anything about bombs! I don't know how to make them!" That was a lie if there ever was one. Ed could remember countless things he'd transformed into combustibles, and several he had transformed specifically to combust. While lying to Mustang was sort of like a bullfight in which all he held was the thin and flimsy matador's sword against a bull who had spent a life time charging when so inclined, this fight felt rigged. He wasn't at a disadvantage because he never had an advantage to begin with! He was simply not supposed to have the tools to win.

"Edward, there is a witness who saw you go in there yesterday," Marianna said angrily. "You're the only student who has been in there, and then today you were there again when it was detonated." Ed felt the walls closing in on him. _How would he explain that! _Marianna lifted a hand and poked her desk with it. "Let me be very clear, this is your chance to explain yourself."

"Ma'am!" Ed yelled, leaning forward in his chair. "I didn't put a bomb anywhere in this school!" Ed tossed his hand wildly to the side in an all encompassing gesture. "I didn't!" Marianna pinched her eyes into thin slits of irritation with Ed's raised tone and excited movement. "I was in gym! I heard the explosion!"

"Other students say you weren't in gym Edward," Marianna replied smoothly.

"Yeah, well…." Ed trailed off feeling trapped. _Crap, he hadn't thought she'd had time to investigate this thoroughly! _"I…" Ed licked his lips uncertainly. "…was," he said, sounding foolish even to himself. Marianna didn't buy this for a second.

"Faculty is who saw you going into the room Ed." Ed didn't understand how that could be true. _The colonel was watching the hall! _"And you said you were in gym, but your classmates say you weren't."

"I…don't think anyone saw me going in," Ed said. He had to think of something, just hook onto something and stall for Roy!

Marianna wasn't fooled by this either. "That's not open for discussion," she snapped. "I don't need to discuss what you think someone did or did not see." Marianna lifted a boney finger and Ed looked at it when it pointed at him. "Edward I am very sorry you're having a hard time here, and we have been trying to work with you, but this is really taking things too far. I don't like seeing you in my office." Marianna stood quickly as if suddenly sprouting from her chair, and Ed slid back an inch feeling like a mouse beneath a hawk.

"Well, I don't like being here either," he said miserably.

"I've had quite enough," Marianna said, as if she felt a strong need to put the cards on the table.

"To put things plainly how many times do you think I can just let you be sent here and take no action?"

Ed was shocked, and his jaw dropped open. "You_ have_ taken action!" Ed snapped gesturing at the woman with his automail. "You drag me in here all the time and lecture me!"

"And it obviously hasn't done any good. You're still here just as frequently. I still have teachers complaining you start fights during class, use inappropriate language, and inappropriate gestures. I didn't have half of these problems until you appeared." Marianna sighed with exasperation. "Now what should I do with a student like that?"

"These things aren't my fault," Ed said sourly.

"I find that hard to believe Edward."

"I don't care what you believe," Ed snapped. "I don't have to discuss what you do and don't believe with you." He felt nervous the moment he was done speaking because he knew he was being what the colonel called a "wise-ass" but he couldn't help it! In his defense he had to do something and so in response, his mouth was moving on its own because it couldn't wait for him.

Marianna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "If you're saying that every occurrence on the long list you have, was outside of your control you're going to have to make a better argument Edward. I am not tolerating this. This has crossed the line." Marianna left her stance behind her desk and walked to the finely polished bookshelf to her left. It had six shelves with cabinets on the bottom and only one on the side. Starting on the top shelf were a few diplomas and pictures near a plant that Ed thought looked dead. The remaining shelves were filled with books peppered only with occasional decorative pieces. A purple vase, a small statue, an elegant clock. Ed had never seen what was in the bottom cabinets, but he had learned from a particularly memorable visit what was in the cabinet to the right, and he felt icy panic flood him the movement she began to open it.

"No! No way!" Ed cried, sliding to the edge of his seat as if to break into a run. On that certain afternoon after Roy had explained things Marianna explained them again and then went to the cabinet and took out a very thin stick. This was how Ed truly learned what a cane was, and he saw it and felt it for the first time on that day, and decided he was never going to reintroduce himself to it. "I am not freaking in trouble like this!" Ed yelled, gripping the arms of his chair with white knuckles.

"Oh yes," Marianna said, with a short and quick bitter laugh. "Yes you are."

Ed was unaware he began shaking his head when she retrieved the first paddle Ed had ever seen and turned around with it. "No Way Principal Sallsburry!" Ed yelled. "I did _not_ put a bomb there, and I am _not_ being punished for it!"

Marianna shut the cabinet and walked quickly to the side of the Ed's chair with him yelling at her. Ed jumped back and silenced immediately with the close proximity of a weapon he wasn't allowed to counter attack.

"Edward," Marianna said calmly. "You are. You are going to be punished, so understand that right now." Ed choked and struggled to keep the panic from flooding his face. _How could this be happening!_ "Now you'll either cooperate and take the paddling you deserve, or you'll be expelled for two weeks."

"Yes I-" Ed was agreeing to whatever was needed to escape on principle alone. What was happening could not be this, and where the hell was Roy! "Wait! No!" Then, what was really said started sinking in. "I-wait! Expelled!" Frantically Ed tried to decipher what that meant for grade school students. _That was worse than suspension right? _"Is that suspension?" Ed asked, dreading the answer. What if it was worse? What if it meant permanent removal from the school! _Roy would kill him! _Hell Roy would flip no matter what if it removed him from his infiltrated position!

Marianna snorted with the childish question. "Yes Ed, that is like suspension. I doubt your grades will hold after two weeks of absence."

"Two weeks of absence!" Ed cried in shock. "But I can't be expelled!" Ed involuntarily began shaking his head. _You could not do reconnaissance from home!_ "I need to be in the school."

"Then you're going to feel the beginning of the repercussions for your actions on your rear," Marianna said, not without a hint of satisfaction. Ed felt his cheeks flood with color. He couldn't believe that sentence was actually just spoken to him. He turned wide eyes full of trepidation toward the paddle in her hand. It looked like a cutting board on a stick. "Even after you're punished a form of suspension might still be necessary but we'll talk about that," Marianna said, before lifting the paddle and pointing to the front of her desk with it. "Now bend yourself over this desk at once."

Ed shot out of his chair and skirted around it gripping the back for protection. "I…" he managed, swallowing the thick feeling in his throat. His face felt like it was burning. This was so much harder than military paperwork or combat. In this fight he felt the barrel of a shotgun aiming right between his eyes when he wasn't even able to carry a knife. "I…I want to talk to Roy."

"What?" Marianna asked, loosing a bit of anger for confusion.

"My dad," Ed said quickly, slowly lifting an open palm toward her for defense. "I want to talk to him."

"Edward, I am counting to three and then you're expelled," Marianna said, with a tone of fed up exasperation.

"Wait," Ed choked. If he couldn't make a loop hole and Roy didn't show, what was the alternative?

Suddenly in the heat of the moment Ed remembered a muggy summer day in which he was sitting outside Roy's office waiting for directions with Hawkeye. It was late, she was the only one still in office waiting for the colonel, and she sat at her desk cleaning her gun. He had asked her about training, and she had given him a piece of advice because, as he'd learned later, she knew Mustang was furious at him and was going to pitch a fit once he met with the man. She said the most relevant piece of information she'd taken from training was actually a simple word of advice. _In battle,_ she said, _you're going to take a hit, and you're going to be wounded. Know it now, and know it well, so when you see the blow coming, you remember to let it happen, and know taking it means you'll be there to fight the next._

All at once Ed saw his blow coming in slow motion and he was horrified. _Was this it?_ Was this that moment? "Wait," Ed choked." _No! This couldn't be one of those moments!_

"One."

"Principal Sallsbury this isn't fair!" Ed cried. _It was like watching a massive hammer lift high overhead knowing you were the target. _"You don't even know if I did it!" Ed was grasping desperately at any argument he thought would fly. "You're not even certain! How can you punish me if you don't have factual evidence or certainty!" _Like the solid and unmistakable sound of a shotgun cocking._

"Two." Marianna felt confident with the testimony of her staff.

"Ma'am please!" Somewhere in the back of Ed's mind he became a bit ill he was slipping towards outright begging, but the majority of him, and specifically select parts, said avoid this at all costs! "I don't feel comfortable with this! _I want my dad!_"

"You're not going to feel comfortable about this Edward, and you're not supposed to," Marianna said angrily. She swung the paddle up in one smooth familiar movement and slapped it into her palm. "You're being punished and your father is not wheedling you out of it." She gave the paddle two quick slaps to her hand and Ed began to feel dizzy. "Don't test me Ed," she said. She had cat's eyes, two thin slits staring down with animalistic precision like she knew she could pounce before he scurried off, and was powerful enough she didn't even have to. "I _will _expel you. Make no mistake."

"Ma'am," Ed whined. _And here it was._ Ed lowered his flesh hand, and swallowed heavily. "Please." _The begging. _"I am sorry," Ed whispered. His mouth was dry and his tongue felt fat. "I am sorry, not for bombs, I didn't plant bombs, but I am sorry I've been getting in such trouble." Marianna gave her head the slightest dismissive shake but the message was clear. No, they were not discussing this, this topic was unnecessary. "I've been trying!" Ed raised his voice with desperation. "Please let me wait for him! Please let me wait!" Ed looked at the paddle and it seemed gigantic. Originally he had imagined something about the size of a toaster, but this was hands down a dinner sized placemat. A nice ten by fourteen monster!

Marianna was silent just long enough to verify Ed was done pleading before she spoke. "Three." In one swoop the paddle was pointing back toward the desk. "Get to the desk this instant." Ed felt his chest cave forward as if a ball of lead were just tossed at him and his shoulders followed. Briefly, and unbeknown to him, when he was told the surgery to attach his automail leg would include a total of sixteen injections and a hundred and fifty two stitches he had the exact same reaction. It was brief and total suffocation under pressure, and Ed felt all the air leave his lungs until a soft and pathetic sound squeaked out. "Over it Edward," Marianna said, not the slightest bit moved. "I am not going to continue giving my orders twice." Ed glanced to the desk but his feet felt rooted where he stood.

One of the most frustrating and infuriating moments he could remember was in basic training under Mustang in which he was told his hand to hand combat was weak and he was ordered to practice. Although his alchemy was strong Mustang told him he wasn't allowed to use it and threw him into a ring with a soldier twice his age and also with two automail appendages. Trapped on his stomach after being pinned in thirty two seconds the guy wouldn't let him up, and Ed felt the same overwhelming frustration and panic he felt while face down on the floor come to him now. Any moment he was going to have to take this blow and he was trying to cling to any second he could to prolong it.

"Fine," Marianna said, anger climbing to a fast and abrupt declaration. "Then you're expel.." before she could finish the word Ed shot to the desk and assumed the same position she made him use for the cane. He stood flush to the front and bent completely over slamming his fists down on either side of him in surging panic and rage. "Good," Marianna said, stepping back and raising the paddle. "Now stay put." Before things went any further Ed pressed his face to the desk and wrapped his flesh arm over his head.

* * *

Chapter seven done! ~ Leave a review please! Let me know what you think : )  
Question - I was torn between placing the Recap at the beginning of the chapter. Do you guys like that? Is it silly? I think you'd go back and review if you wanted to, so maybe I shouldn't do it. What do you readers advise?

Now for some bad news, I will be on vacation for the end of September until the beginning of October. I will be over in Europe traveling through a few lovely places, and won't be able to post while I am away. (I know, I am sorry to leave you all with this cliff hanger!) Both Friday 9/28/12 and 10/5/12 I will be observing a Euro blackout. I should also be in Egypt so please keep your fingers crossed regarding all the awful unrest.

Chapter 8 – Empty Lobby will be posted 10/12/12 when I return. Hang in there everyone! How will little Ed make out of this one, and just what will Roy think about it all when he finds out? We're about to pick up speed!


	8. Empty Lobby

Another Run of Events  
Chapter Eight  
_Empty Lobby  
_- mirage –

Hawkeye received radio communication from Havoc while riding back toward the school with Roy. They had delivered Ed to Havoc, turned around to return home, and then U-turned on the corner of Hinkleway and Marberry after Havoc called and ordered them back.

"This is ridiculous," Roy said, giving the steering wheel a rough smack. He was partially damp from catching Ed's soaked body in the school's landscaping and felt as if they had been derailed from what should have been a successful operation. "What is he saying?" he demanded. He wasn't going to bring up the fact he really wanted a shower, or admit to how being denied that shower was pissing him off. "Hawkeye, what's he saying?'

Hawkeye held up a hand for silence and continued listening to Havoc through her earpiece. Havoc had a tendency to report events out of order when flustered and Roy could see the intense pinch to Hawkeye's brow as she tried to piece it all together. "Havoc we're on our way back now. We're not going to arrive any sooner than we are," Hawkeye said, with a hint of defensive confusion in her voice. Roy could practically hear Havoc demanding they hurry. "Took Edward where?" she asked.

"To the principal's office," Roy said softly with exhaustion and a level of disappointment he didn't quite understand. If anyone in that school took Ed anywhere it would be to the principal's office. "We look like such delinquents." He turned into the school's main drive with Havoc's voice muffling into the car. "I never imagined that putting us undercover we'd make such a low-class and dysfunctional family." He killed the engine and turned to Hawkeye with a heavy sigh but her expression had tightened and it caught his attention quickly.

"Sir," Hawkeye whispered, meeting his gaze with one of concern while Havoc continued to talk.

"What?" Roy asked, feeling worry creep into him. Without a word Hawkeye was communicating enough within her eyes Roy knew something was wrong and it may be serious.

"Ed's been taken to the principal's office and Havoc said..." Hawkeye trailed off uncomfortable with Havoc's word choice.

"Just use his words Hawkeye," Roy demanded. All the time she did this, she translated soldier vocabulary into professional vocabulary when he didn't care to begin with. "Just spit it out!" Roy felt a foreign sensation of heightened suspense assault him so he felt like an idling V12 engine watching a yellow light which could turn green at any moment.

In his mind he appeared in a lobby chair in the middle of no where.

"Havoc said Ed's been taken to the principal's office and he believes Ed's getting his ass beat."

Roy felt the petal hit the floor and he went from 0 to 62 in 3.7 seconds. He grabbed the door handle and shoved out of the car with an intensity that startled Hawkeye. "Sir!" she called, reaching after him.

"Hawkeye." Roy slammed the car door and leaned into the window. Suddenly there was a fire burning inside him. In his mind he stood in front of his lobby chair glaring vehemently toward the direction he knew Ed was in. _How dare they._ "If that's true do _not _be in this car when I bring him back," he ordered, lifting a finger and pointing aggressively as he spoke. Hawkeye seemed shocked, and was unbuckling with haste.

"What are you going to do?" Hawkeye asked, hurrying out of the car.

"It will embarrass him if you're here." Roy ignored her question and left storming for the school

"Sir!" Hawkeye called after him.

Roy felt a surge of anger he only knew from past incidents where other colonels contradicted his orders. It was a fury fueled by insult, by disgust for the arrogance someone thought they could challenge or rival his power. _He'd be damned if someone was going to punish his child without his consent._ If anyone was going to punish Edward, it would be him and him alone. Roy marched into the school and kept his pace when he entered the main office and startled the secretary.

"Where is my son?" Roy demanded, approaching quickly. The secretary glanced toward the principal's door while opening her mouth to answer, but that look was all that was needed. Roy went immediately for the door and the secretary scurried up from her desk. "He's with the principle Mr. Elric. Let me tell her you've-sir!" She rushed to him when he opened the principal's door unannounced and stopped the events of the room.

Principal Sallsbury's office looked exactly the same as it was the last time he visited. The furniture lavish, the books scholarly, the furnished class and trim of the room impressive. Only the impeccable prestige was replaced with Ms. Sallsbury standing in front of her desk with a paddle in mid swing, and the tiny bottom half of Fullmetal before it. Ed was bending over the desk looking as small as ever in his gym shorts with his petite build, narrow backside, and scrawny flesh leg. With his top flush to the desk Roy's eyes swept him in milliseconds and his gaze flew from Ed's shrunken presence to Marianna with aggression.

Marianna looked startled Roy arrived so suddenly, and lowered the paddle with a quick swallow. "Mr. Elric," she blurted. Her tone wasn't guilty, but one of surprise and quick composure.

Roy ignored all of this. "What the hell are you doing to my son," he snapped, stalking into the room and directly to Ed's side. "Back away from him," he ordered, tossing a hand toward her. Marianna stepped back complacently, and Roy ripped Ed up and spun him around.

Ed physically jerked with the sudden grip of male strength to his shoulders, and the spin dazed him. Ed was yanked from a powerful state of concentration that was born during moments of pain and extreme discomfort. Ed had practiced this state of clenched jaw endurance over the years as limbs came and went, and now, pressing his forehead to the desk, and covering his head with his arms, he used it to stay still when he wanted to run.

Roy knelt at Ed's feet holding Ed's shoulders tight and assessing the boy. He had decided he would make up his own mind regarding what was happening and what needed to be done, and that decision would ignore whatever Marianna or Edward had to say. _Next to the lobby chair Ed appeared trembling pitifully. Ed's normal strength was replaced with an acutely disturbing sense of vulnerable susceptibility._ In Marianna's office, Ed's wide eyed look of surprised, which came from being yanked upright and flipped like a coin, dropped to his feet as soon as a cloudy Roy came into view. Frantically Ed raked his flesh hand over his face sniffling back the few tears that were slipping free, and breathing in deep congested gulps through his mouth. Ed's cheeks were flushed to a pink so hot it had spread to his ears, and Roy only needed one look to make his decision. _In the lobby, he stepped in front of Ed and pressed the boy behind the shield that was his body._

"Roy?" Ed whispered, voice croaking out in a barely audible broken rasp. The automail lifted and fisted the lapels of Roy's shirt with Ed smearing the back of his palm over his eyes and under his nose.

Roy stood up quickly, jerking Ed to his side. Ed stumbled into him and wrapped tiny arms about his waist. He didn't need to hear what Ed had to say. Ed's fingers curled tightly into his shirt over the low of his back and Roy felt rage swell up inside him.

"What the hell is the meaning of this?" Roy asked softly, turning a controlled but intimidating look to Marianna. Ed was breathing directly into his upper stomach and he could feel hot bursts of air jumping in and out above Ed's racing heart.

"Mr. Elric, your son planted a small bomb in the downstairs janitorial closet yesterday,

and it erupted earlier today," Marianna said, managing a tone of authority.

"That's impossible," Roy snapped. _That's what this was about! _Fake bombs!

"Why is that impossible?" Marianna asked, taking a step forward to sit the paddle on her desk. Her movement sent Ed squirming into Roy, and Roy felt Ed's arms clamp down on him like a vice. The automail was impressive and cut into his side with carelessness desperation.

Roy hid the wince this sudden pinch in weight brought and kept his voice strong.

"My son knows nothing about bombs," Roy said angrily.

"Mr. Elric he was witnesses by staff sneaking in and out of the room and was present today in the room to detonate it." Roy did not find this evidence enough. "Also, Edward is taking extremely advanced chemistry classes. That academic level is certainly capable of handling explosive materials, and Edward is the only student to enter the room."

Roy felt anger flare when these facts were thrown at him. It was hard to create a fictitious response to these asinine claims which didn't involve the very simple contrary evidence that Ed would not plant bombs in a school he was undercover within. Frantically Roy tried to think of what he could say that would suggest Ed's innocence, but trying to think while so angry was never his strong suit. _That is what Hawkeye was for!_ Immediately Roy regretted leaving her outside, and brought a hand to Ed's shoulder and squeezed it. _He was not going to loose this. _Without denial or lack of information, his two favorite cards to play, Roy looked down at Ed and suddenly, almost dumbly, realized he didn't need an excuse or explanation. He was allowed to, as a parent and not a colonel, go on trust and good faith. This was not an office in which Ed was an employee, he was not a colonel with Ed being his subordinate, they were within their roles connected, and therefore could make judgment calls based on nothing but intuition and trust.

"Did you do it?" Roy asked, anger still overtaking his voice so his question was harsh and demanding.

Ed responded to his aggression immediately. "No!" Ed whined, squeezing tighter.

"_Edward!_" Roy snapped, clipping Ed's name the way he did in the office right before he threw whatever report Ed had given him into his desk as a sign it was shit.

"_No!_" Ed panicked and began yelling angrily. "No, I didn't! _I said I didn't!_ I didn't do anything! _I told her that!_ " Ed had wild fear Roy would doubt his argument and take Marianna's side. He broke into a state of near hysterics with Roy's prodding. "I didn't. I didn't." Roy dropped his other hand into Ed's hair to calm the irrational response he was receiving. _Of course he knew Ed didn't._ Ed's bangs were soaked with sweat, and he could feel the intense damp swell of heat beneath the top soft layers of Ed's hair as he pet his hand back toward the braid in a comforting gesture. "_Please_ I didn't. _Please."_ Roy began a gentle continuous nod of reassurance when Ed tipped his head back begging Roy to take his side.

"Yes," Roy said softly, giving one last firm nod of satisfaction. "That settles it then," he said, lifting his gaze to Marianna who looked confused. "My son doesn't lie to me." This was going to be the statement he made a fact and offered as evidence. He wasn't going to accept its rejection because even acting as a father he really was a colonel, and he was going to do what he wanted.

Marianna looked aghast with his ploy. "Mr. Elric," she began, anger rising.

"Ms. Sallsbury," Roy snapped, cutting her off. "You are way out of line." He raised his voice and made it vicious. "I overlooked your excessiveness the last time he was disciplined in this office, but if you ever punish my son without my prior verbal consent again I willdo something about it. I am well aware of this school's standards, and the fact I signed authorization for Edward to be subjected to them, but there is a fine line between reprimanding a boy and abuse." Roy tightened his grip on Ed's shoulder in a tender fashion. "Now we're leaving. I suggest you forget whatever weak accounts you feel incriminate my son, so I can forget how I angry I am." His words were a threat, but his tone was professional, and Marianna wasn't going to argue with him.

Roy stepped back to disengage from Ed, but Ed refused to detach and followed the movement. Roy paused for a moment, he felt Ed should be uprooted from his hip in order for them to leave, but the last thing he wanted to do was make things harder for the boy. Adopting a respectable and straight posture, Roy began exiting in a slow and even pace. Ed hung on tight, staggering as though drunk with his face hidden within his bangs and pushed into Roy's side with humiliation.

Roy left the main office at a quicker speed and Ed was struggling to manage it with his upper half twisted but didn't argue. Together they walked through the vacant hallways in complete silence before Roy pushed out the main entrance and stopped a few feet into the sun. Walking just far enough to hear the door close behind him he emptied his lungs in a sigh of true freedom.

Roy looked to the car, but it was empty. He felt relieved Hawkeye had obeyed. After her motherly side reared while Ed was ill, part of Roy had not been entirely sure she wouldn't make an appearance. That night she had been compelled in a way he couldn't understand, and felt weary the same variable motivating her to care for Ed while sick would drive her to action today. Although he hadn't left her with a car he was certain she'd take care of herself, and spotted her sooner than he thought he would. Off to the edge of the school's property she was standing in the landscaping and watching them. After their eyes met in acknowledgement they did nothing, and Roy looked down at the top of Ed's head and the spindly arms roped about him.

"Fullmetal, are you okay?" he asked softly.

"I want to go!" Ed snapped, lifting his face from Roy's shirt and sniffling heavily. Roy began walking for the car and Ed was coming with him like an appendage growing out of his left side. "What took you so long to get here!" Ed asked, voice horse and upset. Ed was sniffling constantly, and Roy found this alarming.

"I am sorry," he said sincerely. "I came as quick as I could." He felt his mind calming into a state of level headed normality like a dropping thermometer while at his side Ed was rising.

"She! She said she'd _expel _me!" Ed cried. "She'd _expel_ me if I didn't let her punish me! I couldn't jeopardize the mission getting_ expelled!_" Ed's voice was shrill with a level of alarm Roy had never heard. "What was I supposed to do! _I didn't have a choice!"_

Roy stopped when Ed's voice reached just below a screamed and dropped back to his knees. Ed was startled with the sudden interruption in the middle of the parking lot and jerked back.

Roy took Ed's shoulders in a tight grip and Ed froze obediently. "You did exactly what you should have done," Roy said, keeping his tone low and very calm. Ed's eyes were swollen pink slits into a bloodshot golden color. "You did what you had to do for your mission." Roy tightened his grip so that even with the automail Ed would feel the possession he had on the boy's frame. "Now what just happened shouldn't have," he said. He wanted to be very clear with this and how he felt. "But as a soldier you did what you had to, and I am proud of you."

Ed's eyes were filing with tears as Roy spoke, and Ed wiped them away quickly. "This is the first time I've ever really been hit in my life," Ed confessed miserably. "I hate it."

"I know," Roy said softly. "It's rough."

"This hurts so bad Roy." Ed closed his eyes for a deep wince and Roy stood up and took Ed's hand. "I thought she was going to throw me out of the school," Ed whined, still breathing in quick shallow breaths. "I'd blow the mission."

"You're not blowing the mission," Roy said reassuringly. With Ed's flesh hand tight in his grasp he dug his keys from his pocket with his other.

"I told her I wanted to wait for you, she said I couldn't." Roy bit his tongue with fury. "I can't freaking take this," Ed croaked, reaching back and rubbing his backside in long slow strokes from his tail bone to his lower thigh. "I use the expression a lot, but I've never really—I mean, this is—cause—but you know I've never had my ass beat like this before," Ed said, crying out his words.

Roy approached the car singling out a key and looking off toward Hawkeye. She wasn't signaling any messages about a ride, and he knew she had radio contact to Havoc so she could arrange for something with help. Ed gave Roy's hand a strong yank downward and angry shake from right to left with Roy's silence and he stopped at the driver's side door and looked down at the boy.

"I know it hurts. That's what happens."

"You know I don't want people to attack our stupid outposts, but we're going to have to come up with something soon!" Ed said, wiping his eyes with the hand previously rubbing at the seat of his pants. "How long do I have to keep doing this! I am freaking loosing it!"

"Ed, you're not loosing it," Roy said, firming his tone for stability. Ed's panic was escalating and it was evident on the boy's face.

"I am!" Ed cried, gesturing to himself with a wild flutter of his automail palm above his chest. "I am too freaking loosing it and I am telling you I am freaking loosing it!" Ed pointed a fat metal finger up toward Roy. "This covert shit needs some organization!" Roy shoved the key into the driver's side lock and Ed looked at it. "I can't handle being put—" Ed silenced abruptly and jumped back from the car as if it were fire. It was a professional block, yanking Ed's flesh hand from Roy's and lifting it toward his face for protection while slamming Roy back into the parallel parked car with his automail.

Roy was startled with the metal hand which flew out like a baseball bat and hit like a frying pan into the middle of his chest. It knocked the wind slightly from his lungs and he hit the parked car behind him with Ed's shove as if he'd been drop kicked. "Fullmetal!" he choked, in surprise and irritation. "What are you doing?" he demanded, coughing once and very strongly to refill his lungs. Ed's automail hand was still deliberately pressing his chest into the car, and he grabbed the sleeve of Ed's tee-shirt on the automail shoulder and yanked angrily. Whatever Ed was doing, he'd suddenly exploded into action as if an army of enemies were in front of them. Even with the yanking Ed didn't pull his eyes from the side of their car.

"Holy shit, holy shit," Ed whispered, staring in horror at the driver's side door handle.

"What!" Roy demanded.

Ed broke into frantic anger. "_Will you just look!_" Ed tossed his automail toward the door handle and fisted Roy's shirt in a heavy yank downward. Roy was bent down and jerked forward so his face was inches from the silver handle, and there, drawn lightly in the dust, was an array. "They drew an array right over your door handle knowing you'd grab it," Ed whispered, still mentally gagging in shock. "You-You could have blown up the car!"

The array was simple but powerful, it was explosive, an immediate combustion of metal chemicals, and for the SUV, that was just about everything. If he had emptied a gas can into the interior and thrown in a match he just _might_ be able to pull off the same level of explosion.

"Fire," Ed whispered, automail finger jabbing in a repeated bob above the handle. "A fire array. It's a fire array!"

Roy side glanced at Ed's hysterical expression. "That…doesn't mean anything." He was reluctant to swallow the fact the enemy might know that they were truly there, and that this was their car, and that he was the leader, and that as the leader he was a colonel, and of all colonels that he was the Flame Alchemist, and so as such they would draw a fire array on his handle because it was ironic. He couldn't, at this moment, after everything from the moments directly before it, stomach the fact the enemy may have contemplated things, and had intelligence on them thoroughly enough, to be ironic.

"Roy!" Ed snapped, abandoning his frantic pointing and slapping himself in his forehead directly above the red mark Roy was assuming Ed developed from pressing his face into the hard surface of a principal's desk. "It's a god damn fire array!" Ed cried. "We've been ratted out! We're exposed! They drew it for you!" Roy looked at the finger Ed threw in his face. "You would have blown up the car and killed me!" This was true. "I always get in first and they knew it!" Roy couldn't say this was true. "They put it on the handle knowing I would get in first, you would get in second, and you'd spark the fire array and freaking kill me! Kill us both! I though you said I was safe here!" _Were they safe?_ "I thought you said we were safe!" _Had it come to that? They were not safe? _"I want to call my brother! I need to talk to Alphonse!"

Roy didn't truly realize that Ed was loosing it, the way Ed was insisting he was loosing it, until he heard this phrase. Then all at once he could see Ed objectively and the nervousness he felt bloomed ten fold. Ed was holding his forehead with his automail hand as if suffering a migraine and fisting the front of Roy's shirt with his flesh hand while talking a mile a minute.

"Ed," Roy said firmly. He lifted his hand into Ed's face and snapped his fingers aggressively startling Ed's gaze to his own. "Get a grip," he ordered. "Stop acting like a child. I need you now." Ed recovered with this verbal slap and lowered the automail from his head and tried to straighten up. "I am taking this serious." Roy felt compelled to express this. Ed seemed shaken to his core. "But this is our ride out of here. I am _not _loosing control of the situation."

Ed listened with a miserable and distressed expression that was not reassured with such statements. "Okay," Ed managed, giving a heavy sniffle and sliding his automail back to his rear for some profuse rubbing. Roy glanced at this and Ed tightened his expression and tipped his head forward. "Don't laugh," Ed complained sourly.

Roy grunted a flat chuckle and returned his eyes to the handle and examined the car. He gestured Ed go to the passenger side and Ed left him and moved cautiously to the other side of the car as if the door were yet another open bear trap.

"Nothing on my side cause I get in first," Ed said, with a tone of deliberate attitude to prove his point.

"Get in," Roy ordered. He brushed the array on his handle aside with his cuff and opened his door. Across the interior seats Ed's horrified expression was framed in the window.

"No way!" Ed cried, looking to the car rubbing at his backside. "I am not getting in that!"

"Don't be stupid," Roy snapped, sliding into the driver's seat after glancing round. The car was locked so it made sense there would be no arrays inside, but couldn't stop himself from looking. "It's fine Fullmetal," Roy said, sweeping the dials and ignition with his eyes. "I wouldn't sit in a car I thought would explode. It's fine."

"You thought it was fine two minutes ago too! That's when you would have slaughtered me!"

"Fullmetal." Roy lifted his gaze and cracked a half smile on sight of Ed's puffy eyes and sulking expression. Ed was glaring into the car with disgust while rubbing his rear with both hands. "Hawkeye is surveying this entire parking lot," Roy said, with a bit of humor. "And right now, all you're doing is giving her a first class view of you rubbing yourself."

Ed's eyes widened in shock. "Why!" Ed grabbed the door and ripped it open. "Why didn't you tell me that!" Ed cried, scrambling into the car.

"Because," Roy said calmly.

"That's not a reason!"

"It is a reason, and that's it," Roy said, repeating Ed's material. Ed looked angry it was fed back to him and gave the dashboard a solid kick.

* * *

Roy opened the front door to their false home after scrutinizing the handle for over a minute and a half. He looked underneath it, on the backside, turned the handle at a slow testing speed to make sure nothing would be revealed or interlock with the movement, before he deemed it safe. The entire time Ed stood at his side watching intently and hanging tight to the side of his shirt. When the door creaked open that first inch, and then sailed silently inward neither of them moved. They watched and waited, but it seemed whoever came after their car had not come after the house. Roy stepped in calmly and Ed, unwilling to let Roy go, clambered in when Roy's movement jerked his arms forward and pulled the rest of him along.

"I don't want to stay here Roy," Ed whispered, looking around skeptically. "This isn't safe."

"It's fine," Roy said calmly. Paranoia on the battlefield was as dangerous as napalm, it exploded quickly and spread. You had to keep your wits and stay reasonable. It was highly improbably someone had managed to infiltrate their house and booby-trap it with all of the surveillance and activity they had there. "Why wouldn't it be safe?" Roy asked. "It's easy to sabotage a parked car Ed. No one has been inside our house and Hawkeye's coming." She had radioed them on their drive back and Ed blushed when he heard her voice. "She's going to stay up while we sleep."

Ed looked reassured Hawkeye was coming and that she would be vigilant while they slept, but not convinced this provided a safe heaven. "What makes you think if they know what car is ours, they don't know what house is ours, huh?" Ed asked, detaching slowly. Roy lifted his left arm when Ed stepped around to his left side and began wedging out of his sneakers with his eyes trained into the house looking for danger. "I don't want to blow anything else up," Ed said, stepping free and cautiously walking into the living room with uncertainly. "All that stuff I did, it wasn't my fault!" Roy was shutting the door when Ed's voice raised, and the tone caught his attention. Ed was yelling to him as if he were defending himself, as if they were back in his office and from his side of the desk he told Ed his report was shit and Ed was insisting that was a lie. "I didn't mean to do it!" Ed said, turning around to face Roy. "When Havoc gave it to me it just blew up in my palm!" Ed lifted a hand with all fingers curled inward before flicking them outward to mimic an explosion. "I didn't mean to wreck the school!"

"I understand that," Roy said calmly, slipping his hands into his pockets the way he often leaned back in his office chair waiting to see what would unfold. Edward did not follow normal soldier patterns, and for this reason, he never really knew what was coming. He was waiting now, in the same way he felt he was always waiting, for things to pan out so he could make his move.

Ed's emotions seemed to be getting the better of him and it was easy to see a mixture of guilt and frustration rippling into Ed's brow and cementing a look of angry betrayal. "I didn't mean to break the damn jar, or to set off the freaking alarms, or to do anything that was not normal! I didn't ask for this!" Ed said angrily.

Roy took a few steps into the living room and Ed backed up with the advance. "I am trying!" Ed cried, anger disappearing for guilt. Roy felt lost with Ed responding as if he were scolding the boy harshly when in fact he was doing nothing at all. _Did his presence have this effect? Did he have the ability to cause Ed to feel belittled and interrogated simply by standing? _"I am. I swear. I am really trying," Ed insisted, lifting his hands in a palm up gesture of empty begging. "I am trying there," Ed said, before clearing his throat when his voice cracked and his expression was crumbling with sorrow. "Roy I swear…but…this is…" Ed brought his flesh hand to his face and began rubbing when he broke out whining and his voice cracked. _Rooooy._

"I know you are," Roy said softly, trying to encourage Ed to relax. "I know you are." He took a step to the couch and sat down.

"It's…not my fault," Ed croaked, automail curling into a fist. "It's not my fault I have it." Roy looked to the automail, it was trembling lightly in the stiff and tight grip Ed was fisting. Ed was staring down to the carpet, his eyes welling with tears, and his gaze darting quickly from side to side as if his thoughts were assaulting him. "I-I I mean it is my fault—I did it to myself but—it's not my fault I have it where it there," Ed repeated, voice tight with sorrow. "I need it," Ed croaked. "I need it to live, but…" Ed's flesh hand lifted ever so slightly before falling limply back to his side. "All the kids _hate _me." Ed broke down with the word hate, and started crying. "They think I am such a freak cause of my automail, but I _can't take it off_," Ed sobbed.

Roy was startled with Ed's sudden crying and extended a hand slowly and as passively as he could. "I understand that Fullmetal," he said softly, paying close attention to the sudden display of emotional defeat and need. With his hand extended he realized he had never envisioned a scenario in which Ed would begin crying over a mission, and yet simultaneously, he realized he felt none of the judgmental disapproval he thought such an act would bring. All at once Hawkeye made sense. _Patient. Friendly. _"No one blames you for how this mission is going." Roy left his hand extended, his palm inches from Ed who stood sniffling and reigning in his tears. "Missions are hard, and they're always hard. That's how it goes, and teams never blame their teammates." Ed was calming and with his flesh hand smearing tears down his cheeks Ed's automail slipped back to the seat of his pants and rubbed.

"I didn't plant a bomb," Ed sniveled. "I know it's not my fault our mission is like this, I can't make something from nothing and I—can't—but I am not that recklessly stupid! I don't blow things up with amateur powder and do such a shit job of it! And I wouldn't do it now!"

Roy gave his hand a gentle flutter to indicate Ed should take it feeling nothing but confusion. "We're not accusing you of doing so."

"I am freaking doing everything I am supposed to!" Ed cried. "And I get dragged to the Principal's office anyway!" Ed cleared his sinuses and swallowed. "I can't be nice to people who don't want anything to do with me! So if I loose my temper and tell them to stuff-it, I can't—that should be—shouldn't be counted against me! But I still get in trouble! And I still get labeled the trouble maker, and I get demerits, and my teachers are mad at me, and I get sent to the Principal's office and then she freaking paddles me for something I didn't do!" Ed was speaking rapidly, and in a way that made Roy more than concerned. "If I was going to blow something up she'd freaking know it! They'd know it was a damn alchemist they were dealing with!"

Roy reached forward and snatched the front of Ed's shirt. He was disturbed with the anger that suddenly became bitter aggression. Quickly he pulled Ed to him. Ed startled with the grab and relocation of his frame, and went mute and complacent, something Roy was unfamiliar with. It told Roy things had gone too far, because Ed's response not reassure him Ed felt capable of defending himself against the mental projection of an adult.

"You don't need to tell me this," Roy said, locking his gaze with Ed's. "Do you understand?" he asked, running his hands up to Ed's shoulders and gripping them tightly.

"I didn't blow stuff up on purpose," Ed whimpered miserably.

"I am always on your side," Roy said, voice almost cold with intensity. " You don't need to defend yourself to me Ed. I am on your side, and that means you have all of my strength as a resource to you, and gratefully I accept all of yours." Ed's face crumbled with relief and he sniffled heavily before clearing his sinuses again. "Even if you had blown up the school on purpose," Roy said, giving Ed a teasing smile. "I still wouldn't have let her paddle you for it." Ed imitated the smile hesitantly but sincerely. This meant a lot to Ed and Roy could see Ed's relief. The mission did not change their team, and even here there was a line in the sand between what they would and wouldn't allow to happen. "I would never have turned my back on you. No matter who messes up or what they've done, you're my team and that goes for everyone," Roy said seriously. "It's true we need to keep up appearances, but there is something to be said about recognizing a standard of practice, and I think we've found it," he said kindly. "She does not get to touch you." He wanted this point crystal clear. "Going forward the only judgmental hand you have to worry about is my own." Ed looked as if he found this too good to be true. He was blinking quickly with his sinuses so congested, but managed a fleeting smile of gratitude. Roy tried for a bit of humor, "But I may have to ask her where she's getting some of her persuasive tools."

Ed cranked his mouth into a disagreeing frown with his bottom lip wobbling just the slightest bit and said, in a flat dry voice, "That's not a funny joke."

Roy laughed kindly, and before he realized what he was doing, as he would a minute later, he opened his arms the way he did for his sister-in-law's four year old and gathered Ed forward into a hug. In that moment Ed was overwhelmed and stressed, and Roy felt he had verbally righted a wrong that had existed like a weakness being prodded into a bruise. Since the start of the mission Ed had been forced into his role, position, and resources. He was undercover and that was the most stressful part to play.

"It worries me you were thinking all of this," Roy confessed, realizing slowly that he had engaged Ed in a hug Ed seemed to find awkward and foreign. Ed was stiff in his arms and shifted with discomfort. "We'll work something out," Roy said. Slowly, and almost cautiously, Ed lifted his arms and returned the hug in a light and nervous grip. "You have my word on that. We will work this out." Roy rocked his grip to give Ed's frame a gentle reassuring shake.

Ed's grip tightened at once, and Roy realized that although he felt something was wrong in the school, and had the excuse he could only enter when appropriate, he was allowing himself to be blind for the greater good without fully realizing the risk. It was now apparent whatever was happening, despite both Ed and Havoc's unwillingness to share, it was dramatic enough to drive Ed into allowing this hug. "Okay?" Roy asked softly.

"Okay."

Roy leaned back and disengaged the hug. "Why don't you relax, and sit down."

Ed's expression tightened with irritation. "Cause my ass kills."

"Sit on your legs." Ed looked at the couch with something between longing and detest. "We'll just wait for Hawkeye, apparently she's taking her time." Ed slid back onto the couch and rested his weight on his legs with a heavy sigh. "How come you haven't told me any of these things sooner?" Roy asked, leaning back and propping his arms onto the back of the couch comfortably. He looked at Ed, who sat at his side staring downward, and contemplated dropping his arm around Ed's shoulders. He didn't want to offend the boy, but he felt a need to confirm to himself Ed was both physically and mentally stable, and much of this he seemed to want to sate by physically touching the boy. "Why didn't you tell me what was happening?" Ed was staring at his automail hand. "You don't have to be embarrassed."

"I am not."

"Yes you are."

Ed looked up with angry confusion he was contradicted. "I am not embarrassed," Ed said firmly. "I am just trying to do my damn job. What good would it do to whine about every little thing that happens?" Roy contemplated how he did not consider what was happening 'little' things. "Would that help me do my job? Would it help any of you do your jobs?" Ed asked, gesturing to the house. "I have a hard enough time just trying to be respected walking around the office. I don't need to start whining about things on top of it all. Don't think I don't notice the way I am treated. I know I get special treatment for things because of my age. I am trying to get rid of that."

Roy was surprised Ed was aware of the special treatment he had coming from many angles for many reasons. The women soldiers were often kinder to him, smiling and using inviting tones that were, if not abandoned, all but forbidden for use towards of age soldiers. Likewise departments who had never met Ed, responded with a confusion towards his rank, but also practiced the kind explanation and patience when dealing with Ed that came only with children. Hawkeye was a perfect example, always putting paperwork together for the boy and making sure he understood all of his forms. Three days after Ed was instated, Roy had arrived early one morning to find Ed sitting in a chair pulled along side Hawkeye's desk while she simplified the state's tax forms into tiny sentences and concepts so Edward could understand how to begin doing the process of his taxes. In life, and especially within the military, kindness was precious, and busy schedules it was sometimes hard to find. Roy was surprised Ed recognized this and wanted to discard it.

"All of it?" Roy asked, lifting a curious eyebrow. Ed nodded without hesitation. "What about with Hawkeye?" Roy would have loved someone to have described his taxes to him when he enrolled in his early twenties. "You want to get rid of that special treatment?" While young male soldiers generally regarded Ed with indifference, the majority of them, when caught in direct contact with him, like the female soldiers, took that extra second Hawkeye always spent to make sure Ed wasn't neglected.

"It's a package deal," Ed said simply. "I have to get rid of it all, or except it all." Ed sighed with exhaustion and tipped his head back into the couch to relax. "Hawkeye's so nice to me, she doesn't patronize me Roy. Others do."

"Fullmetal no matter where you go, or how old or tall you get, there is always gong to be someone there to patronize and lie to you," Roy said, dropping a hand onto Ed's head and playfully shoving it to the side. "Remember that," he said kindly. "It's going to be some of the best advice of your life."

Ed snorted in mock skepticism before going stiff when from upstairs, directly overhead, something fell over and smashed.

They were on their feet in seconds. "Cover me," Roy ordered, slipping his glove on. Ed clapped and sparked his automail into a blade with Roy creeping toward the stairs. "I am going upstairs, no matter what happens," Roy turned to Ed and kept his voice barely above a whisper, "don't loose your head." His eyes and manner adapted a serious tone, what soldiers referred to as 'orders to live by,' and without knowing the phrase Ed recognized this instruction for what it was. "Today in the parking lot you lost it. If we had been attacked you world have been

useless to me." Ed's face was hard as stone. There was no argument, no defensive response, only reception. Ed obediently absorbed the message and gave a single nod of true understanding, the true sign and capability of a soldier well beyond Edward's age. It was the trait of a man, and the handful of traits Ed had casting him years ahead of his counterparts went hand in hand with those that weren't yet ready to move forward. Today, as a young boy, Edward was taken to the principal's office and punished too harshly for both his age and physical body. He was embarrassed, felt belittled, humiliated, and assaulted without the power to defend himself or control his environment. As a result Ed had responded like a child. A few mature traits were not enough magic to dispute the hundreds of days and life events that closed what was more than a decade gap. This Roy addressed, as seriously and constructively as he could, and Ed swallowed Roy's words with respect and listened to him.

Roy wasted no time ascending the stairs. In quick but silent strides he ambushed the bathroom with his hand raised and his fingers pinched and itching to snap. It was the only room over their part of the house. As he walked, with each step and each breath his body was feeding him adrenaline. A hundred doses, a million doses, electrocuting each nerve ending to a straight stiff standing rod of keen awareness. All of him waiting. _What needed to be done? _All of him ready. _He'd do what needed to be done._

With his glove on his right hand, his left pushed the bathroom door flush to the wall and revealed a small and empty room. Dimly lit the small nightlight they'd purchased and plugged in next to the sink was glowing for Fullmetal, and there was nothing but the flowerpot Hawkeye had set on the slightly open windowsill now smashed on the floor. Chunks of the water absorbing soil had rolled onto the fuzzy green mat and looked like fat coffee stains.

He abandoned the bathroom.

The wind was not strong enough to blow over a potted plant, so the question was, why was it deliberately broken? If someone was trying to enter, if this was the someone who had learned of their presence, than that meant they were not a someone who carelessly knocked over items capable of smashing loud enough to alert both the upper and lower level of a house unless the desire was to make the bathroom the center of attention. As intently as Roy felt an urge to reach the bathroom he now felt an urge to flee it. _It was a distraction_. It was meant to capture their attention, and possibly to separate them.

Roy stepped onto the top stair and was opening his mouth to order Ed into sweeping the downstairs for any signs of suspicious behavior while he did the upstairs, when the sight of Ed opening their front door startled him mute.

Ed unlocked the door with his automail and his injured flesh arm tucked to his side before opening it casually in what seemed to Roy as slow motion. It was the equivalent of Ed opening a bomb, and Roy felt sharp icy fear strike him before the sight of Hawkeye was revealed standing on the doorstep. _Ed was letting Hawkeye in. _Instantly Roy felt his system flood with relief, and in an action that would have embarrassed him if observed, he lifted a hand to his chest in a sigh of delight his paranoid was just that.

"Come in fast," Ed said, stepping back. "We've had a situation." Ed was quick at updating other soldiers and Roy knew this. So it wasn't the fact that Hawkeye stepped in wordlessly, without asking about this 'situation' that set off the first alarm something wasn't right, it was Roy's visual of Ed as he stepped back for her that did so.

With Ed's automail still holding the knob of the front door, that single step to the side turned his profile into full view, and even from upstairs Roy could see that Ed's eyes were red and puffy from tears, and he carried his flesh arm as an injury. Edward looked like a young and troubled, recently crying, prepubescent boy, and if there was ever a time for Hawkeye to drop her famous '_Is everything all right Ed?' _this was it. Instead she just stepped past Ed as if not seeing him, and Roy felt the relief he had inside him storm up to the icy panic he had just rid from himself.

_She had a list! A list of things she always did with the boy!_ As sure as she was standing there, not a day had gone by since Ed showed up in the adult world of the military with golden eyes the size of saucers and a watch too big for his palm, that Hawkeye had ever failed to see what most of the military, including himself, did not. He called this her women's intuition, and the same way she could read his emotions off him because they had spend hours, and days, and weeks, and months at each others side experiencing things he hoped half the world never had to experience, she was able to read information off Fullmetal the exact same way simply because he had not reached a height that convinced the rest of the world he could even legally see an R rated movie by himself. She used her magical female powers to understand something he could not understand with perfect accuracy as if she could see a bulls eye above Fullemetal's head and knew how to hit it each time she aimed. _She had a god damn list_, and it started the moment they crossed paths.

1: Smile

2: Ask Fullmetal if he is feeling okay.

3: Decide for herself, through any manner of scrutiny, if she thinks he is okay.

4: Assure Fullmetal it will be okay.

5: Update Fullmetal on any necessary information so he is never left out.

They had even talked about this list! They had discussed it! One night after work when she agreed to walk with him to the bar she gave him '_that look' _for visiting on weekdays, they shared a drink and he told her the list. "That's ridiculous" she had said. "Roy you're exaggerating and making something of nothing." But he wasn't making something of nothing, he was verbalizing something that was not nothing. A talent denied to his gender, and something very tender and very special he would never describe openly with those words. He was describing part of what made her wonderful, part of what made her human, and part of what made him respect her, because she offered to Fullmetal, without him realizing or requesting it, a form of true kindness he did not even have hopes to grasp until he was years older if he ever did.

He had told her the list exactly as he knew it, all five steps, and she had lifted her gaze from her beer and squinted her eyes up as if she were skeptical he had figured out and understood what he was saying, and curiously fascinated he was telling her something about herself she was learning for the first time.

This Hawkeye that Ed let into the house felt as foreign and intimidating to him as Ed welcoming a large looming monster.

"I am so glad you're here," Ed said to Hawkeye, sounding pleased she had rejoined them.

"Yes Ed." Hawkeye's voice was emotionless. "Where is the colonel?"

And just like that Roy felt as if a red sniper dot had appeared on his forehead. _He was the target._ Not Fullmetal, not the invisible alchemist they suspected their culprit alchemist of hunting, but him. The Flame Alchemist Colonel Roy Mustang.

_So, Ed was right, they had drawn a fire array specifically for him. They had drawn it to be ironic._

"Hawkeye," Roy said, raising his voice just enough to be absolutely certain there was no way he would not be heard. Immediately she looked to his voice and Ed turned to him as well. "It's good you arrived." In his mind he saw Fullmetal standing alongside his lobby chair with a tall black shadow of danger alongside him.

"So?" Ed asked, a look of concern still lingering on his features.

"It was a flower pot," Roy said, with a casual disinterested tone.

Ed's expression morphed into one of confusion he was given such dribble as a report. "So, how'd it fall?" Ed snapped, tone implying such a response was stupid and he should know better because he was a colonel.

"Sir," Hawkeye said. Her face was perfectly expressionless, but not blank. Roy felt captivated with it, as if someone had painted a portrait of what her face was supposed to be and was wearing it as a mask. It wasn't that it didn't fit, it was that there was something missing, and Roy felt betrayed by his own mind he couldn't identify what it was. "Ed has already filled me in." Ed had done nothing of the sort. "I don't think it's safe here. We need to move you to another location, even though it's a risk."

Ed was listening intently to Hawkeye and became hopeful with her declaration. "That's what I've been saying!" Ed gestured to Hawkeye with his automail while looking at Roy as if to say '_See! This is what sense sounds like!' _

Hawkeye failed to respond to this either. "I'll move you one at a time." Roy felt disturbed the royal 'we' had become a single 'I.' "Ed, let's go." Ed was eager to leave and went directly to his discarded sneakers.

"Let me go first," Roy said quickly.

Ed was standing in his still tied sneakers doing the twist to wiggle back into them and stopped dead. Ed looked up with a disgusted expression. "Are you really that selfish?" Ed asked, dropping in height when his left foot sank into his sneaker but the automail was putting up a fight. "She'll be right back."

"We'll go together then," Roy suggested. Along side his lobby chair Ed was innocently standing still as the dark grinning figure snaked long thing hands around his neck.

Hawkeye ignored his words and so did Ed. "That's not wise sir," Hawkeye said, opening the door. Ed trotted around her and when he was close enough she reached out and took his upper flesh arm in a gentle grasp. This touch felt like a spark of fire to Roy, and he physically jerked.

"Fullmetal, come here," Roy demanded. The words jumped from his mouth the minute Hawkeye's fingers managed their grip on Ed's twig of an arm. He felt compelled to remove that hand, remove that foreign heartless hand. To remove _her, _to never have to look at this soulless alien imposter of such a close friend again.

With the sound of Roy's voice in such an urgent command, Ed immediately looked over his shoulder with utter confusion. Roy's order was more appropriate for the monthly conference call meeting he shared with four other generals who sometimes requested Ed's presence. Twice during this dull call he had slipped from his chair and almost from the room before Roy noticed, slammed down the phone's mute button, and yelled at him to return to his chair. To Ed, Roy's tone sounded as if he were doing something wrong, as if something were wrong, and Ed couldn't make heads or tails of it. _The colonel was loosing it!_

Roy's tone caught Ed's attention, but also gave him away. Hawkeye's eyes met Roy's and they were knives. She froze as if a spotlight had been popped, and although she was caught within its beam, she didn't care she had been caught.

"Come here now," Roy ordered, when Ed didn't move.

"What? Why?" Ed asked, sounding annoyed. Ed looked stumped before a quick wince of pain shot through his expressions and he closed his eyes and hissed in a gasp. "Ow, careful of my wounds Hawkeye." Ed lifted his gaze to her as he spoke, and it seemed the exact same moment her name was falling from his lips was the moment Ed realized something was wrong, and that something was her. When Ed spoke her gaze dropped to meet his, but it was nothing more then the decent of dark pupils, there was no consideration behind them.

Ed jerked his flesh arm toward himself to rip it from Hawkeye's grasp. "Let go!" Ed snapped, before buckling his knees with a high pitched whine of pain when she squeezed down. Beneath her slender fingers were many tiny slices in Ed's arm, and a particularly long and thin gash beneath her ring finger was splitting open like a red root spreading into Ed's skin. "OW!" Ed cried. "Hawkeye!" The automail arm lifted, bent into a blocking position, and Ed shoved it into her stomach to push her back, but she didn't budge. Roy felt the beginning of real panic. Hawkeye was no push over, but he knew she only weighed a hundred and twenty pounds. Standing at ease with her feet not even shoulder width apart, a hundred and twenty pound woman had to budge when a thrust with Ed's combined weight and automail pushed into the center of her core. Instead, Hawkeye's eyes narrowed as if the shove was an offensive nuisance. Almost too fast to see she lifted her hand, with Ed still trying to forcefully ease his arm from her grasp, and slapped Ed's face. She struck his left cheek in a sound as quick and severe as a lightening strike. Ed's face whirled to the right, and Roy found his tongue.

"Fullmetal! Get over here now!" Roy clamored down the remaining stairs, hand raised and fingers pinched. Inside he didn't know what this meant. _Would he snap his fingers? _With her as the target? With her standing there? Would he light a fire?

With the slap Ed lifted his right leg and pressed the sole of his sneaker into Hawkeye's thigh as leverage so he could yank his arm free of her grasp. Ed staggered back panting with the left side of his face glowing like a hot plate and swelling. Ed's eyes were three times their size in a widened state of dazed shock. "_Ed!"_ Roy snapped, and Ed fumbled in the slow backward pace he was making from Hawkeye and began a quick side stepping deviation toward him, before freezing abruptly and stopping all movement. "_What the hell are you doing!" _Roy demanded, keeping his glove raised for Hawkeye to see and his second hand extended toward Fullmetal. He was reaching forward from his lobby chair, and he wanted to grasp Ed's hand and yank the boy to him, but Ed now seemed frightened by him. He saw a look of distrust float over Ed's eyes and Ed took a quick step back from both of them.

"Stay away from me," Ed said softly, lifting the automail up and opening his palm to warn them both.

"What!" Roy cried. "_Are you serious Edward!"_

Ed began a slow untrusting shake of his head with eyes darting between Roy and Hawkeye. "Stay away from me!" Ed ordered wildly. "Just stay where I can see you, and don't move." Ed's flesh hand raised up and Ed let it hang inches from his automail hand as if showing them a blade. The message was clear: _it only takes one clap. _"I should have known," Ed said softly, scolding himself. "I should have realized _sooner._" Roy didn't know what this babbling was about. "The real colonel would never hug me!" Ed accused angrily, and Roy felt kicked. "So back up!"

"Ed." Roy felt real anger flare. "I never left your sight! I've been with you since we left the school!"

"Wrong!" Ed snapped, backing up quickly, and at first it seemed this backing away was an irrational attempt to place distance between them, before it became apparently it was planned and Ed was backing toward the window! "You went upstairs! You left me for a flower pot!" Roy's jaw dropped. _So now the flower pot was his fault! _"And before!" Ed was not done. "So _different_. So _unlike _you Roy. You tried to_ kill_ me!"

"Ed that's not true," Hawkeye said quickly, and her voice was so convincing. "Listen to the colonel, what you're saying doesn't make sense." She was acting like there was something salvageable after that slap when there wasn't.

Ed reached the window and his automail was frantically opening it blind with his eyes trained on them like a cat. In quick motions from a limb that only felt the resistance of the surface it met, Ed unlocked it and hoisted it up before throwing a leg over the sill. Before he left he gave them both the finger. "Bite me Hawkeye."

Roy panicked when Ed jumped out the window. "Fullmetal!" He began a run forward before Hawkeye took a shot and the bullet whizzed by inches from his face. Roy stopped in his tracks and turned to her eyes. Those cold cold eyes.

"You let him get away," Hawkeye said softly.

"Who are you?" Roy whispered. He was furious, and felt he could kill this portrait for ever thinking it could be her, for ever trying to use her!

She had her gun because she always had her gun and because she didn't have to go in the school. He did not, and without it, and without an alternative, he realized he was going to have to do it in the house.

"I am First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye," she said sardonically.

Roy lifted his gloved hand. "And I am Flame Alchemist Roy Mustang." He snapped his fingers and let fire explode around them. He intended it to be a circular combustion between them so she could not come forward and he would be forced back by the blast. He wanted it to spread like napalm and planned for it to shoot out in all directions except for his and it did. Flames swept into the room like someone had opened a volcano in the floor and the heat was more intense and paralyzing than the glow of it.

The force of the sudden blast knocked Roy back, and he hit the wall with a hard cough and threw his right arm outward toward the window he knew would be there. _He was going to follow Fullmetal._ He dropped to his knees coughing, combustion produced, directly after the fames, a fat spurt of smoke directly upward and it hit the ceiling and rolled outward before blanketing the room. Roy ripped the window open and ducked when she managed footing on the other side of the fire and began shooting. Two slugs hit the wall a foot away, but the third went through the glass in the top pane. Roy threw himself out the window and hit the lawn in a clumsy summersault. As soon as he was upright he scrambled to his feet and took off running.

The outdoor air and suburban setting seemed so mundane it suggested he stop and turn back to see their perfect hide away house not on fire, but sitting inconspicuously in the cut grass. Fullmetal was no where in sight, and Roy could hear the flames roaring upward from the window he had opened and licking hungrily at the second floor. As he ran he envisioned her standing in the room, but his mind wouldn't let the fire burn her. Part of him felt relieved he couldn't picture her dying in flames with her hair frying to black ash and her skin bubbling and popping like raw meat. It was too much for his mind to put her face there, but another part, a serious part, was afraid he didn't kill the monster hunting them.

Inside his mind he was standing in the middle of no where. He had lost his base, his contact, Hawkeye and Fullmetal, and he was bailing full buckets of swelling panic from his ankles. The him inside his head was tired, his head was bowed, his shoulders sagged downward collapsing with the pressure and stress, and it felt hard, almost overwhelmingly so, to prioritize what had happened into a serious of steps so he could develop a plan. Inside his mind, he was all alone, searching desperately for all the things he so suddenly lost. One of them being a lobby chair.

* * *

Woohoo! How'd you like that? The Ending? Sweet Ed and Roy moment? Please leave a review!

I am glad to be back everyone, I am safe and sound. Egypt was AMAZING! It is so sad there is such unrest there. To all of you in Israel, Turkey, Greece, and Italy, I stopped by there as well! I am now jet lagged and behind with everything (…geez, you try and have on vacation : ) but I made sure to drag myself to the computer, over the luggage, clothing, and souvenirs, to post this for you all, so I hope you truly enjoyed it. Only three chapters left!

Chapter 9: Readmittance will be posted next Friday 10/19/12

On that note, I have several FMA stories ready to go which I can post for upcoming reads. To the single response (thank you XxSpiritWolfxX) I will no longer place the RECAP before my chapters. I am however looking for suggestions as to what you all might like to read. Here is some of what I have!

"Foolish For You" – a EdxRoy piece, 16 chapters, takes place with Ed a bit older, and Alphonse back in the flesh. Action, drama, and a bit of romance. A fun piece with a bit of everything (as long as you're okay with EdxRoy) since you're all reading my stuff, and knowhow I write, I can tell you I am nervous about 's rating system since some of this one is graphic, but I am going to post anyway! Seems like others are. This story should make you laugh, worry, and has some real suspense. Spend an hour, day, weeks, with Ed and Al, see how they live and interact now that they're older. It's just two young soldiers, and one is falling in love. Romance isn't always the way books make it out to be, experience what it's like in Central.

"The Silent Heart" – Continues the FMA story from where the first anime leaves off (yes written before FMA was every continued in anime, but severely scrubbed for your entertainment. I have put a lot into this one guys! It's like a baby to me) Ed and Hohenheim, Germany, and how harsh it can be turn of the century, living without your arm/leg, and the ability to read/write/or possess your body and soul with independence. Action, drama, and a story of learning to both humble yourself and earn the right to forgive and love. [Fun fact, my Ed here, spawned the Ed in Foolish]

Those are my big ones, both easily over 200 pages, and completely done. In addition I have three small one shots!

"Christmas" – I am not telling you what it's about, I am just going to post it for Christmas. I think it's sooooo cute! A small warm oneshot full of holiday spirit, a bit of comedy, and a teaser for all you readers.

"Hazing" [Written in 2008] – A small comedic one shot in which Ed experiences some Hazing after first joining the military, and Roy thinks it's good for him.

"Office Conduct" [Written 2008] – A small comedy in which Hawkeye thinks young little Ed just might have more courage than she thought when it comes to making a pass at a lady.

Hopefully as we cross the new year I'll have two additional more-or-less put completely together. I am working on them now. One is "Ball of Wax" and the other (THANK YOU reader, you know who you are, who remembered the original title) is "The Big Bang Theory." (reader you inspired me to begin scrubbing it for post) Also, to anyone thinking, hey, there is a show with that title, they copied me! I renamed my fic first!

Let me know what you think! I know I talked a lot this chapter guys, sorry. Reviews are welcome! Letting me know what you think on what your reading now, helps me for the future. (Any OHSHC fans/readers in here? I have stuff for that CAT too but the majority of readers in there seem…a bit…spazy, so it's discouraging. Let me know if any of you are dabbling over there, I'd love to share OHSHC fics!). As for FMA I am excited, but nervous, to post some of those listed above. Sometimes it seems no matter how hard you work, every time you re-read you feel you're just not good enough. The reviews help.


	9. Readmittance

Another Run of Events  
Chapter Nine  
_Readmittance_

- mirage -

In this small town, where they were undercover, the dream girl inside Havoc's mind, the one crafted via combination of the pinup he'd had in his locker since he was a recruit, with a few changes he'd mentally composed including slightly larger breasts, and tightly defined arms, had become a reality. Here this girl was his fiancé.

"She's a real sweet heart," Havoc said. "Long red hair, right to her butt. Butt like you only see in your dreams, breasts that were made for each hand, and she turns to me and says, _James_, _James don't go. I'll miss you!_" Havoc impersonated his fiancé in a high pitched tone, and his boss, Coach Greyman, started laughing. The coach, unlike the colonel, did not narrow his eyes into thin skeptical slits the girls in these stories were _fictitious_, or as the colonel put it, _bullshit._

In many ways, the teaching career was beginning to overshadow the military career, and if it wasn't for the fact teachers did not get to carry guns, Havoc knew he would be slightly inclined to feel concerned over his life choice.

"How did you meet her?" Coach Greyman asked. The coach asked follow up questions, the colonel said: _get away from my desk this second. _

"A blind date."

Together they were coaching a volleyball game, but almost all students in the school were well behaved so it was more like watching a volleyball game.

"Nice ass, huh?"

"Cheeks that are out of this world." Havoc fell silent and looked off towards the game. The boys were playing happily, slamming the ball with their sneakers squeaking against the shinning floor as they chased it. "I am off in fifteen," Havoc said. It was habit to announce how soon he would be leaving, and it was habit for everyone in the office to ignore him.

"They're just going to play," the coach said, gesturing to the court. "Why don't you take off." The man gave an elaborate shrug, and glanced over with a warm crooked smile. "I think I know how to coach a volleyball game."

Havoc didn't need to hear this twice. He left for his office swinging his gym whistle and plopped down at his desk in high spirits. He would phone the colonel and let him know he was off early in case something was needed, since his true boss had not excused him, but in reach to the phone something oddly sharp and hostile jabbed his crotch with enough deliberate strength and precision he stopped all motion. Havoc looked down at the blade poking into the crease of his right thigh and right nut in shock, before realizing he recognized the blade. It was the finely pointed silver arrow head Fullmetal constructed on top of his automail arm. The flattened razor sharp metal extended well over the boy's fist and Havoc had seen Fullmetal use it to slice all sorts of things in battle, one of the most memorable, and most intimidating, had been a piece of braded cable over a foot in diameter used to anchor large artillery weapons in place.

Today, before Havoc could manage one word of fearful shock, Ed's small blonde head peeked out from below the desk. Ed looked up at Havoc with his cheek inches from the blade, and his head inches from Havoc's knees.

Havoc felt his mind fail to produce any type of explanation or reason for this situation to ever occur. For Ed ever to get so close to him in such an awkward position, and surely for any reason the boy would be rude enough to jab him in such a private and _im-fucking-portant _place! Havoc felt his brief curiosity, concern, and even fear blink away for a blunt and solid anger.

"_What the hell are you doing?"_ Havoc asked, voice frosted with a merciless tone.

"If you want to keep your gems," Ed said softly, sounding hostile himself. "Then you better tell me who you are."

"What?" Havoc asked, lifting a slow eyebrow before glancing at the knife in his sack. "Ed, get that off my nut before I kick you in the face." Havoc told himself to relax, and closed his eyes tightly for the briefest second to reign himself in. There was something very specific about being taken hostage this way that, as he was now learning, made him all sorts of pissed.

With Havoc's order Ed's narrowed his eyes angrily and ignored the desire to look at Havoc's legs. Havoc was a solider, and although he fought with guns instead of alchemy, that didn't mean anything about whether or not he could, and Ed felt his threat level rise the same moment Havoc felt his drop.

Ed wasn't just sitting under his desk, Ed was curled under there, and in the overhead light, Havoc was beginning to notice things he hadn't upon the first knife-to-ball moment. "Ed, why are you under there?" Ed's forehead was shimmering with an unmistakable layer of stressful perspiration, and for some reason Ed was _still _wearing his gym clothes. "Are you injured under there?" Havoc asked, leaning his top half back to try and see.

Ed gave his blade the tiniest twitch when Havoc moved, and Havoc immediately stopped. "I was attacked," Ed said. If Havoc was an enemy there was no use hiding this information, Havoc would be in cahoots with the attacking party.

"What?" Havoc asked, twisting his expression as if with illness. _Attacked how! Wasn't Ed with Mustang? _"Chief, I thought you were with the boss."

Havoc looked innocent enough to Ed. Beneath the desk it was small, dark, uncomfortable, and Havoc seemed genuinely surprised with the information Ed had shared. _He didn't look like an enemy._ He didn't act wrong the way Hawkeye had acted wrong, and Ed felt like a fool for letting Roy realize it sooner when he was the one who let her in. Havoc seemed…dumbly genuine, and when Ed heard the word _chief _and _boss_ fall so casually and perfectly from Havoc's lips he dropped his blade with a relieved sigh. _Havoc did not seem to be an imposter._

Ed withdrew his attack, but Havoc was still a soldier. The minute the knife moved he grabbed Ed by the hair and yanked the boy out from under his desk. Ed wasn't sure what happened until he was face down and bent over it.

"What's the meaning of this Ed!" Havoc demanded, holding the automail arm against Ed's back with his second fisting into Ed's blonde hair and holding Ed's head flush to the desk.

"Ow!" Ed snapped, sounding annoyed until Havoc kicked his ankles apart and he felt the severity of the situation collide. Havoc had locked him into a traditional take down position. "I was attacked! I didn't know if I could trust you!"

"If you could trust me?" Havoc repeated, lifting his tone with insult and anger.

"Something happened to the colonel and the first lieutenant!" Ed let a grunt of discomfort escape him. There was a pencil under his face and with so much pressure on the back of his head, that tiny twig felt like a baseball bat. "They weren't right. They were imposters. They attacked me."

"The colonel attacked you?" Havoc was startled and immediately released Ed's head and reached for the phone.

"Don't call him!" Ed cried, lifting his head in panic. The pencil stuck to his face for a moment before dropping off and rolling away leaving only the intense smell of lead. "Are you really that freaking dumb Havoc!" Ed tried to push up but Havoc wasn't giving him any slack. "Let me up!" Havoc hesitated. "_Havoc!" _Ed snapped, with a bit of outrage. "What happened to that we're on the same side sap! I order you to let me up!"

Havoc was hesitating with uncertainty, and felt a pang of annoyance with that statement. "You going to keep all your metal to yourself?" he asked, retracting the foot he had in between Ed's legs, and relaxing his grip even as he asked.

"Scouts freaking honor," Ed grumbled miserably, standing up and bending his neck toward either shoulder before cracking it. "What a bust," Ed complained.

Havoc sat back in his desk chair and waited for more information. Ed was rubbing his neck before the cheek which had been forced into the desk. "So what happened?" Havoc asked. "The last time I saw you was in the nurse's office."

"She took me to the principal's office, and Roy came and got me." Ed turned to face Havoc and leaned into the desk. "He was acting odd, not himself, very…." Ed thought the most appropriate description was overprotective, and in a gay sort of way, but that was hard to explain. "Naggy." He decided that would have to do. "And…" _Nice. Supportive. Helpful. A Freaking Knight In Shinning Armor! The Person I Was Hoping To All Hope Would Come! _"Just…not himself." Ed broke eye contact feeling embarrassed with memory of this afternoon.

First, there was what actually happened in the principal's office and how unbelievably freaking embarrassing that was. Briefly the thought he should have told Roy not to tell anyone and to exclude it from the report, flittered through Ed's mind. He didn't really want that written down, even if it was done politely.

Second, there was leaving the principal's office, and how crazy it was to think of him practically, let's be honest, hugging Roy's waist in some type of frantic desperation, with Roy yelling at the principal and keeping that kind grip on his shoulder.

There was the painful walk of shame outside, where he couldn't get a grip on himself and in humiliation left his face turned into Roy's side for privacy. Roy's comments to him, Roy's un-Roy like nice talk, the not-at-all-like-the-colonel soft tone Roy had used and very un-colonel-like-things Roy said including saying he was proud. Ed felt stung with the memory of Roy saying he was proud of him while he stood sniveling and struggling with a little spanking like a two year old.

"Principal Sallsbury get you?" Havoc asked, ripping Ed from his consuming thoughts and the blank trance he'd slipped into. Havoc was rocking his chair thoughtfully with a serious expression. "She reminds me a little of Hawkeye in the way I wouldn't want to cross her." Ed thought of imposter Hawkeye slapping him and shuddered.

"Yeah," Ed muttered. _Roy was probably going to have to put everything in their damn report. _"It wasn't anything I couldn't handle," Ed said quickly, hoping his voice sounded more convincing to Havoc than it did to him. _Alphonse would have laughed with how outrageously his lie sounded._ "She was all pissed off and Roy showed up in the middle, and we let her have it." Havoc wasn't good at reporting things word for word like Hawkeye, so Ed was hopeful this wouldn't get back to Roy the way he was saying it. He didn't need Roy to know how embarrassed he was even if he'd deny it to his grave. "We left and the colonel started getting weirder in the parking lot." Havoc looked confused. "Things he'd say were unlike him, then when we were getting into the car, and I always get in first, there was a fire array on his door handle and I stopped him before he could touch it."

Havoc looked perplexed with this style of fact less reporting until this detail came charging through. "He would have touched it?" Havoc sounded scared for all of them. "How detailed was it? Was it something like the colonel makes?"

"It was powerful." Ed left it at that. "It wasn't the colonel's work, but it was made to fuel on fire. We went back to the house, separated for only a minute and then Hawkeye came. She was worse than him."

"More arrays?"

"She was dead in your face an imposter. They both came at me so I ran, and I ran straight here because I didn't know where else to go." Hawkeye's POA said the market was the fall back, but that was a much farther run than the school.

"Then we should go," Havoc said confidently. "If you came here, it's likely who ever is chasing you might as well. We don't want to cause a commotion here." Havoc stood from his chair and Ed felt a breath of fresh air come over him when a team member still seemed ready and able. "If they really do know what you say they know, enough to draw an array with that type of skill, and to decoy as Hawkeye, then they'll know I am here." Ed gave a fast nod. He had come to that conclusion as well.

"That's why I was hiding!" Ed gestured to the desk and Havoc gave this decision a thumbs up.

"A fire array," Havoc said, grabbing his keys from the desk. Ed kept nodding. _Yes! A fire array! A fire array for the fire colonel! "_What do they think they're being funny?" Havoc asked. "Think it's ironic or something?"

Ed threw a thumb over his shoulder. "Let's go check out 3G. We know next to nothing on our man and he or they seem to know a lot about us."

Havoc looked worried with that suggestion. "Chief you think that's a good idea with out any backup? It didn't go well last time."

"I think if we don't find out what we need to know we won't be able to _find _our backup," Ed said irritably. Yes, that was the bigger issue here. On one hand there was the very real and dangerous fact that the colonel and Hawkeye could no longer be trusted and were armed and probably lethal, but there was also the quiet more alarming issue. If Roy and Hawkeye were imposters, than…where were the real ones?

Havoc and Ed snuck down the school hallway, and after the school day the stillness that settled over the place was eerie. Quickly they returned to 3G. It was the locked door with construction tape and warning signs amidst the singed hallway. Orange cones and two saw horses had even been included to properly quarantine the area so no one walked too close while the floor showed the warping ripple effect of heat blasting into it. The last transmutation to go off was no laughing matter, and from this angle it really did look like a bomb.

"I am going to open the door," Ed said, easily fitting in between the saw horses and ripping the construction tape down with his automail. "But I can't go in, you go in." Havoc nodded and watched Ed clear away the yellow vinyl stripes and signs before grasping the doorknob. Ed smirked when it was locked. "From one alchemist to another." Ed gave a small clap and took hold of the knob again. Havoc heard the lock inside fall apart just with Ed's grasp, and Ed ripped open the door and stopped.

They were expecting a damaged version of the room they'd seen earlier. The papers perhaps cleaned out entirely in what would have been large soggy mounds. The desk taken away because it had split into two pieces right down the middle like a fault line giving way. They expected this imposter employee would have tried to tidy up things because that would have been understandable. So part of the blast might have been wiped up, wet belongings wiped down and set to dry, the window marked heavily for students to be aware of the danger, but instead there was none of that. In the place of 3G was a solid brick wall behind the entrance door.

"What?" Ed whispered, reaching up and laying his palm on the wall. "This doesn't make any sense." Havoc watched Ed stroke his palm to the side and noticed none of the mortar even moved. Ed seemed not to notice, and Havoc didn't mention it seemed impossible for the wall to have just been built based on the fact it was dry.

"Ed, let's go," Havoc said, feeling unsettled, incredibly unsettled, as if they were standing in a haunted mansion.

"Would they have done this for construction purposes?" Ed asked, backing up and clapping.

"Ed! Don't!" Havoc reached forward and grabbed Ed's shoulder.

"I want to see what's beyond it Havoc," Ed said, extending his open palms for the wall. "I'll fix it just the way it was after." This wasn't the problem, Havoc wasn't so sure he wanted to see what was beyond it. Somehow it felt as if they were biting off more than they could chew. That there was a very important and strangely specific clue they should have picked up on in order to make sense of this but they had missed it, and so none of it was coming together. Should they have infiltrated differently? Maybe, brought outside help? Looked further into the administration of the school? Deeper into ownership? The military did have secrets, could they have something buried within this school? A test within a test? Something to provoke them to see how they'd perform?

Ed laid his hands on the brick, and it gave way to a gapping hole into the outside landscaping. There was no room, no walls, no floor, no cement outline or providing foundation. Ed cleared away the brick as if he were installing a window and they both looked out into the lawn and mulch with shock.

Havoc staggered back and his right hand dropped to his hip grasping air and wishing he were wearing his gun. "Ed, back up from there," he ordered, glancing up and down the hall. _They were leaving_. Ed was leaning out the hole he'd made and staring at the lawn. _3G had disappeared as if it had never existed_. "Ed!" Havoc barked, closing his fist along side his hip vowing to go and get his gun. "Get over here now!"

Ed's head jerked around when Roy's voice saying the exact same phrase flew threw him. Roy had said this minutes after hugging him the way the colonel never had, and only seconds after Hawkeye had slapped him. Now there was only Havoc, someone Ed was trusting completely, and if jeopardized, could put him in a lot of danger.

Havoc saw a look of uncertain anxiety cross Ed's face and threw up his hands. "Dammit Ed, it's me! It's Havoc, Jean Havoc," Havoc said, giving his chest two fist pounds like an angry ape. "You came to me, remember?"

Ed stepped back from the wall and closed the brick feeling isolated and abandoned. Without Alphonse there was no one he could trust completely, and just as he was deciding to stay on the offense, and trust no one to stay safe, Havoc spoke.

"I like chicks," Havoc said, happily. "I like chicks, all types, all heights." Ed stepped away from the wall feeling blindsided with this new topic. "I like long long legs, legs sky high." Havoc lifted a hand slowly as if caressing the thigh of an invisible woman and smiled. Here Havoc paused, and Ed's mind continued this mantra because he had heard it before.

"I like butts," Ed said, continuing Havoc's speech.

Two days after Ed had joined the military, a day and a half after Roy tossed his alchemist watch to him and welcomed him with a smirk that said: _You have no idea what you're getting yourself into_, and twenty minutes after Ed had been forced into a locker room filled with soldiers taller, more muscular, and more experienced than him, and expected to disrobe and shower with them because that was normal and what soldiers did after the training run he had been included on, a tall blonde soldier reporting to the colonel he reported to saved him.

Jean Havoc, who stood in a towel smoking inside the steam filled locker room of loud talking, crude joke telling, profanity loving soldiers ,watched the young boy Hawkeye told him passed the state alchemist test with flying colors. The kid would be working under Mustang, his boss, and Havoc wasn't sure how he felt about that.

He wanted the boy strip at the speed of light while huddled next to his locker, wrap a towel around his waist with a grip that said it was a parachute, and then stare with something between a look of horror and paralyzing embarrassment toward the shower room where everyone looked so very different, in a heated debate as to whether or not we could suck it up and do this.

Havoc had decided if the little guy was brave enough to give it a go, then the little guy would be okay in his book, but if the kid chickened out, he didn't want to see him again for a good six to eight years.

While Ed would remember this day slightly differently than Havoc, Havoc would clearly remember that final deciding nod and nervous swallow Ed made before starting toward the showers like a ring leader approaching a foreign lion so he could insert his head.

Havoc stopped Ed after two feet by dropping a large and heavy hand onto a petite and slender shoulder.

"Hey there, where do you think you're going?" Havoc asked kindly. Ed looked up with confusion and something between concern Havoc was going to tease him, and hope Havoc would be nice. Havoc's smile widened and he showed Ed the nearly full water bottle he had been drinking. "Looks like you've already showered." Havoc turned the bottle upside down over Ed's head, and slapped the boy's back when the water plastered Ed's long hair to his skull and sent the boy coughing. "No need to go up there Chief."

That day Havoc gave Ed a get out of jail free card, and Ed forever listed Havoc as A-Okay. Directly after that event, when Havoc tossed the empty water bottle aside and extended his hand he said two things. "My name is Jean Havoc." And the second was the Havoc mantra which started with, _I like Chicks_.

"Oh god, a good butt," Havoc said continuing from Ed's line flawlessly. "Sometimes that's all you need.

"A little chest isn't so bad either," Ed said, and Havoc laughed.

"Yes! A little chest is not so bad either, a _lot _of chest, not so bad either. I'll tell you once, and because it's true, a good woman's all you'll need."

Standing in the school hallway Havoc reminded Ed why he ever decided to trust the tall fun-loving, woman-hungry fool, by cleverly confirming he was one of the Good Guys and not the Bad Guys.

"You really don't know what happened to the colonel or Hawkeye?" Havoc asked, abandoning his playful tone for one far more serious.

Ed gave his head a disappointed shake. "No."

"Okay," Havoc said firmly, as if not the least bit bothered. "Than until we do, it's you and me, and don't you forget it." Havoc extended his fist and Ed painlessly punched it with his own. _They were now a team_. "I don't want anymore threats on Little Jean, got it?" Havoc said, lifting a finger.

Ed smiled. "Got it."

* * *

Roy tossed a few bloody dollars onto the market checkout counter and Fuery looked down at them with surprised confusion. "I'd like a pack of cigarettes," Roy said, voice tired and overrun.

Fuery hid the fast look of alarm which swept his feature poorly, and gestured to the back. "We're all out upfront, let me take you to the back." _I'd like a pack of cigarettes_, this phrase was written into Hawkeye's POA as a code.

Fuery stepped from behind the counter wearing a green polo, brown market apron, and jeans, and led Roy into the back familiar room of produce and canned good pallets. "What happened?" Fuery asked immediately. Roy had kept his posture as straight as possible but he felt achy from the velocity of the blast, and the dash out the window. He hated to admit it but he felt like saying, _I am getting too old for this_. He wasn't the young guns man he once was, and his frame and muscles now seemed shocked with sudden leaps through glass windows the way they once were not.

"Hawkeye attacked me," Roy said. That was not how he planned to start his report. He planned to start correctly, stating the location and number of his attackers, but instead he blurted this simple phrase because her blank cold stare was burning in his memory. The look of her, the not-her was powerfully unsettling, and it begged the question _where was the first lieutenant? _Where was his right hand woman who would not have gone down without a fight. Who would have emptied every last shell and left on foot to warn them, before letting this happen. _Was she safe? Was she hurt? Was she conscious? _Something strong had come forward if its talent was great enough to come close to her for that final blow, for even a weak poorly executed first. Her imposter had walked into their foyer as if it had owned the place, and then there was of course Fullmetal.

Yes, _Fullmetal_, the bullheaded boy who had been prancing around the military practically in diapers, in full denial he was in diapers, and demanded he be treated equal to the heavy drinking, chain smoking, female fucking soldiers he wanted to work with, because he decided he was now, at his young age, like them. Or not like them, or only like them when Ed approved of what they were doing, and not like them when they were goofing off and busting in on each other and shooting blanks to scare the living daylights out of teammates. Or sabotaging lockers with provocative male porn as practical jokes, or using black sharpie markers to change uniform last names, traditionally printed on the right breast pocket, from_ Fagool_ to _Faggot_, from _Duslbar_ to _Dushbag, _and laughing when the unsuspecting John was confronted by a higher-up for being Officer Dushbag, or Lieutenant Faggot.

Then, Ed was firmly opposed to being _one of them_, no in fact then he was an alchemist, and the stupid things Edward did, which included running and yelling in the halls, picking up cafeteria food for scrutiny when he did not know what this speck was, or that speck was, sometimes laughing when he should not laugh, sometimes becoming angry when he should not become angry, often times not understanding forms or state policy and completing all of them with the handwriting of a preteen, all of those did not count. Edward would never understand why snickering during a meeting when someone described the building as remaining_ erect_, was the same as writing Officer Dushbag. Edward did not see these things, no, it was Mustang, it was him who was made to see these things. To sit at his desk and look at the bunch of clowns running about under his reign who could, on demand, snap into some of the most skilled sharp shooters, and grounds men, and alchemists he wanted to say he'd ever seen. It was only in between those periods of skill and grace they acted like the young men they were and threw things at one another, and drew on their sleeping pals, and laughed during meetings, and submitted incomplete paperwork with the penmanship of two year olds.

Since day one Edward had believed he was set apart, and whether appropriate or not, consistently tried to force that to be true. As a young boy he faced generals who were sick of him, adults who felt exhausted and insulted by his presence, people who didn't want to deal with him, female soldiers who wanted to coddle him, and a colonel who made things strict on purpose to whip him into shape. Ed tried to rise to every challenge and never act like the child he was. So, Roy had to consider the very real possibility that although Hawkeye's presence had been a stone cold doll of his first lieutenant who failed to display the compassion Hawkeye could not, as a human, seem to remove from her soul, that Edward, might too be an imposter and simply be blundering in a different way.

_Was it possible Edward would become as upset as he did today and do the things he had? _Hell, the boy was hanging onto his waist like a toddler on his mother's leg. Ed had started crying, continued crying, and allowed him to take the boy's hand, and then later in the living room, for them to hug. _Was that right?_ Fullmetal crying? Whining? Hugging? On all accounts that didn't sound like the Fullmetal Alchemist, but then what about him? He was the Flame Alchemist. How about his hugging? His leading subordinates who were half his size by the hand friendly like? That didn't sound like the Roy Mustang he knew. Was it possible he was responding to the new situation like Ed was? In a very different, and also very unusual way, because it was so unusual? Or was the Ed clinging to him and crying to him a fake, something to distract him? Hawkeye had revealed her fallacy immediately, because she couldn't fool him, but if he encountered Ed again, the way things panned out, he'd be inclined to immediately trust the boy. So perhaps her piss poor performance was similar to a boxer taking a dive to make Edward more real?

Roy raked his hand over his face. He didn't know what was what anymore. Inside his mind he felt he had lost the entire lobby. There wasn't even ground to stand on.

"Sir?" Fuery was concerned with the silent trance Mustang seemed to have slipped into. "Are you all right? You didn't hit your head did you?" Mustang looked a bit dirty as if maybe he'd decided to weed a garden before dropping by, but nothing appeared to be bleeding. "Sir?"

Mustang turned to Fuery and considered his soldier. Under these circumstances, how was he supposed to know Fuery was in fact still on his side, or really Fuery at all?"

"I set our home base on fire," Roy said, watching carefully for Fuery's response.

Fuery choked, looking shocked. "What in heaven's name for?"

"The first lieutenant is at this time an imposter and not to be trusted." Fuery looked blown away. "Our enemy seems capable of infiltrating us and doing so by disguising their appearance as one of us." This only meant one thing, and he was not happy he was going to have to say it.

"What?" Fuery now looked lost.

"So that being said, how do I know you are actually Lieutenant Fuery?" Roy asked casually. He was still wearing his ammunition glove, so he was not nervous about possibly calling out another one.

Fuery's look of surprised dropped to perplexed confusion. "Well I don't know what to tell you sir."

Roy was not expecting this response.

Of all responses he could have received, _well I don't' know what to tell you? _Was that even appropriate considering the weight of the discussion. Roy opened his mouth to address this, to coach Fuery into what he should have said if he were in fact his lieutenant, when from the back door, the same back door they had parked in front of when Havoc's jar exploded in Ed's hands, there was a loud sudden banging.

"Fuery! Open up it's Havoc!" Havoc kept banging even as he spoke and Fuery rushed to the door.

Roy stood quickly feeling alarmed with the increase in people outnumbering him. One imposter he could take, but he didn't want to test his luck with two when loosing that fight meant offering an imposter-Roy to the rest of his team, or who knew what else.

Fuery unlocked the back door and Havoc charged in and rested his hands on his knees panting. "Thanks," Havoc said, catching his breath. "I ran all the way here. Our base fell apart."

"I know!" Fuery cried, looking worried. "The colonel just got me up to speed!"

"The colonel?" Havoc's head jerked up and he looked at Roy with an expression of defensive aggression. "That's not the real colonel, the colonel is an imposter," Havoc said firmly. He stood up and snatched the large ice pick sitting precariously at his side on a pallet of peas.

"I am the real colonel," Roy said angrily.

"That's exactly what I'd expect the fake colonel to say!" Havoc snapped, giving the ice pick an angry swipe through the air. Roy considered how that was a rather cliché comment, but he couldn't help his direct honesty sounded a bit silly given the context. "Fuery we have to leave, and we're leaving him here," Havoc said, taking a step back towards the door.

"Havoc don't be stupid," Roy snapped, feeling real agitation come._ So now he was being left behind! _"Could a real colonel use this glove?" He lifted his fire hand, but Havoc was glaring at him like a rabid dog.

"How should I know? Go ahead, and try it and see. Show me you can. Blow the place if you think you can mimic the colonel's skill at even a fraction of his talent. Then while you're frying I'll rip this up through your stomach and watch you guts sizzle like fat in a pan."

Fuery looked severely disturbed with the darker side of Havoc and was gapping. Roy had to admit, he was impressed and glanced at the intimidating metal hook. _Havoc looked like he'd do it._

"O-Okay guys," Fuery said, lifting a hand as if Havoc needed to be calmed down. "Let's just take things a step at a time and talk this out."

Roy pointed irritably at Fuery. "If I am a fake, how do you know he's not one?" he asked. _Dumb Havoc._ Havoc glanced nervously at Fuery who was gapping with this accusation.

"Colonel you know I am not! We were just talking!"

"If you suspect me you should also suspect him, I might simply be a decoy so you take him along. We might be planning to meet up and take you on together," Roy said angrily. "You need to think your actions through when you're not working off tactical plans Havoc." _This had always been Havoc's weakness. _They had gone over this a thousand times. "If you applied this much enthusiasm at the office we wouldn't even be having this conversation."

Havoc lowered the ice pick with a bit of surprise. "Colonel?" Havoc asked suspiciously. _That sounded like the boss._

"Don't lower that now," Roy said irritably. "I could be a good fake!"

"Colonel!" Havoc cheered happily. "It's great to see you boss. I ran right here from the school, and I brought something." Havoc stepped back and opened the door. He Havoc stepped half out, made a fist, flashed two fingers, pointed toward himself, and made an O with his hand.

"What the heck is that?" Fuery asked. "That's no code I've ever seen."

"It's the bro code," Havoc said, staring out into the thickening evening. With the sun setting the night was sweeping over the town, and the wind was picking up. From the rustling bushes outlining the landscaping of the back parking lot a small form, which became Fullmetal, broke into a run charging toward the door. "My team in boot camp made it and all of us know how to use it," Havoc said, slamming the door behind Ed. "So I showed him one."

Ed charged in under Havoc's arm shivering and staggered to an immediate haut, which almost had him tripping flat on his face, on sight of Roy. "Colonel!" Ed cried, fumbling back and flat into Havoc who, in less than a second, locked Ed's flesh wrist in his grasp and yanked it behind his back while jerking the ice pick up to Ed's neck like captain hook holding Wendy hostage. "Whoa! Easy Havoc!" Ed cried, dropping his wide startled gaze to the sharp hook teasing his jaw line.

"Show me," Havoc ordered, dropping to a cold merciless tone. "Everyone in this room is who they say they are, except for maybe you."

Roy glanced at Fuery. Apparently Havoc felt Fuery was cleared simply because Fuery was with him, and was so convinced with his exasperated office comment his interrogation had stopped. Now watching Havoc poke Ed in the face with a hook large enough to hang a fat seal, Roy was just realizing how serious Havoc was taking this and he was again impressed. Havoc's light hearted nature often down played tough times. This made it hard to tell if Havoc was failing to grasp situation severity, or simply using what seemed to be a natural coping finesse.

"Okay," Ed whispered. _This was Havoc's finesse._ "But I can't with my arm held behind my back. You have to let my hand go."

"Keep the palms separated," Havoc said firmly, releasing Ed's grasp. Ed lifted his hands slowly as if at gun point. "It won't kill you for this to poke up through your jaw Ed, but it will hurt like a son of a bitch, and you'll bleed just like a fish."

Ed closed his eyes and broke a nervous smile. "I am aware." Ed bent his head forward slowly, and kept his hands perfectly visible. Havoc let this position hang for a moment, before quickly repositioning his right hand to drag Ed's tee shirt up his back so high Mustang though Havoc was taking it off. Then, with Ed's shirt up about his neck, Havoc looked over Ed's back before dropping the ice pick and tossing it to the side.

"Good to have you," Havoc said, giving Ed's back a kind slap. Ed went forward a step and breathed a relieved sigh. "That's the real colonel and lieutenant."

Roy locked eyes with Ed and he could see Ed's skepticism. Ed kept close to Havoc's side. "Until I feel confident you're both not fakes, all of you except for Havoc can kiss my ass," Ed said firmly. "And colonel, it feels great to say that while there are no repercussions."

"Wipe that smirk off your face," Roy snapped. With the excitement he'd risen a bit from his seat, and now he let his weight sink back down for rest.

"Let me get you guys some water, and Ed do you want some…bandages or something?" Fuery asked, glancing at Ed's disheveled appearance and wounded flesh arm and leg. Ed appeared to have hit the lawn outside their false home as forcefully as Roy had and grass stains were evident leading from Ed's knees almost to his ankles. Part of him was also coated in something of cobwebs that seemed more fitting for an old attic. Like Roy Ed looked tired. "Maybe some water?"

"If you leave our sight you're a liability," Havoc said flatly.

"Okay," Fuery said, tossing his hands in a fed up gesture. "Have you all lost it? You're reports are so lackluster you have to understand from where I am standing, you all sound insane."

"We're not idiots, just because no ones saying it doesn't mean we're all not thinking it," Ed said, giving Fuery a quick glance as if to imply all but Fuery were thinking it. " The only way to explain it is to assume there are Homunculi in the area," Ed said, taking a seat on the pallet of peas Havoc had retrieved his weapon from. "They're the only ones capable of imitating a persons likeness to the quality Hawkeye was impersonated."

"But we've all read that report Ed," Fuery said.

_Yes, they all knew about the Homunculi_. In fact Roy remembered a very clear conversation outside of Edward's hospital room where Hawkeye told him, in a low whisper, how dangerous she believed those things were for a boy who, in his medically induced sleep, had called for his mother.

Roy remembered sympathizing with Hawkeye's concerns in the exact same moment he felt regret and irritation wash over him. _He never should have let her in the room to see Ed to begin with. He never should have left her alone with him._ After he swept open Ed's hospital room door and found his youngest alchemist unconscious and drooling, he had left angrily to find the doctor. Behind, he left Hawkeye, who had stepped around him with an entranced stare locked on Ed. _Surely the tiny little boy sleeping all alone and bandaged was not the one they were sending out on missions._ When Roy had returned, not five minutes later after being told Ed was put under and would not wake up for at least an hour, she had been sitting on the side of his bed. The crisp formality of her military uniform screaming against the child print pajamas Fullmetal had been dressed in.

"_This isn't good for him_," Hawkeye had said, after pulling Roy from the room with a firm point to the door. "_Sir, you need to take into account how old Edward actually is and be reasonable." _

All Edward had done was twitch in his sleep, jerking his flesh hand enough to curl his fingers and toss his head to the side. In barely an audible whisper he had uttered the word _'mom' _and sitting at his side Hawkeye had felt part of her heart break in a moment of overwhelming sadness.

Roy had felt a very different part of him break when she explained this to him. It was caught somewhere between guilt he had left her in a such a sensitive environment knowing something like this could happen when she was already harboring a natural soft spot for the boy, and the sensation of being flat out repulsed with how unfair it was. How overwhelming the relentless demands, both involuntarily and often without Ed's knowledge, Ed's age brought Roy within his command. This was yet again something that would have to be handled differently. He couldn't just strut off and say, "_handle it" _the way he could with soldiers of soldier age who conducted soldier-age routines which were well known by everyone. Handling that was easy, because it was routine everyone trained for, it was routine everyone had practice with. No, instead he put two guards outside Ed's room, and spent a small fortune in toys he allowed the boy to expense. Then somewhere in between the puzzles, books, and action figures, Ed wrote a report about what he had seen, heard, and witnessed, and they all read it.

So there was only one. Only one shape shifter.

"If there is only one who can morph like that, then there can always only ever be one imposter, right?" Fuery asked, sounding perplexed they were trying to shoot holes in the theory they'd already voted on.

Roy admitted he found this part confusing. Earlier it seemed Hawkeye and Fullmetal were both imposters, but was that true if there could only be one? Hands down she was, but was that really Fullmetal in the parking lot? Really Fullmetal in the school? Was it really possible the events of the day had pushed Ed to that point and allowed him to drop his guard, or perhaps more accurately, be unable to carry it any longer and simply break down? That had been what he was encouraging wasn't it? He had told Ed if he was needed, he would listen, hadn't he?

So maybe it was possible Ed finally had that moment. Maybe it was possible that cooped up like this, where Ed wasn't able to waltz in and out to do whatever he did to remain cocky and badass, that this was what happened. That was possible. Ed had been uprooted and severed from all of his comfort items. Alphonse was back in Central, the town, school, and environment were entirely foreign. They were being forced into close quarters that put them in new and slightly awkward situations. How old was Ed? Was it possible for a fourteen year old boy, no, a fourteen year old Alchemist to loose it after a stressful afternoon and start crying in some form of desperate defeated exhaustion? The same fourteen year old alchemist who typically had a chip as fat and opinionated as their top generals resting on his shoulder?

With Havoc making sarcastic comments about how they'd _all read the same report_ and so you didn't have to _ask questions in that type of tone_ to Fuery, Roy tried to decipher what he would have done as a fourteen year old in Ed's place. He _had _been fourteen once, and so he knew that fourteen year old boys could cry, but that it was a selective and safe guarded event usually broken into two categories. 1. You are the only person I would ever think of doing this in front of, and 2. I'd die before you see me weak. Wasn't he in group two with Fullmetal? Wouldn't Ed prefer to die before crying in front of the great Flame Alchemist Roy Mustang?

Roy glanced over at Ed. Ed was reciting what he knew about their shape shifting enemy with annoyed hand gestures because Havoc and Fuery were speaking at the same time. One repeating that _yes Ed, we've all read the damn report_, and one asking again _well how is that possible if you're saying there is only one shape shifter!_

Ed certainly looked as if he revered everyone in the room to be in class two. But then again, there was the night light, that subtle goodnight Ed muttered to Roy after saying goodnight to Alphonse, and the request to sleep in the same room that particular nightmarish evening. Since last week they had begun holding conversations through the bathroom door if one was showering, and preparing dinners of odd Ed-inspired combinations. Like this they shared a unique and peaceful enjoyment that came only from hollowing out baked potatoes to fill them with honey smoked baked beans and loading the top with cottage cheese to make bean-cheese-porritos. Or making grilled cheese sandwiches and using each sandwich as a top and bottom bun for a hamburger to make grilled-cheese-hamburgers which they simply referred to as _monsters_. Maybe these things, these very important things, could move someone from class 2 to class 1. Maybe these things allowed you to fill social voids, and so who was to say what was real anymore? Who was to say how many imposters there were, and how many of them were simply loosing their marbles in the afternoon!

"One! One! One!" Ed was holding up a single finger with his voice raised in hopes to silence Fuery and Havoc. "There is only one! Why would I write one in the report if there was more than one!"

"Ed, I think you can safely stop referencing your godly report," Havoc snapped. "Even I read it cover to cover."

"You two don't realize you're agreeing and trying to contradict yourselves at the same time," Fuery said, now arms crossed over his chest with irritation. "I am going to grab us some supplies and then we'll leave."

"No, you can't leave our sight!" Havoc snapped, grabbing Fuery's shoulder when he stepped back. "One or ten imposters, we still have those homunculi running around!" Fuery gave an exasperated sigh and dropped his arms. "Hold still and I'll…" Havoc glanced around before grabbing a pen off the inventory clipboard left on the pallet of canned mushrooms. "I'll draw something on you." Havoc uncapped the pen.

"Really," Fuery said flatly, sounding like a recruit who was used to finding himself and his things drawn on while in boot camp. _Officer FurryCrotch, would you mind explaining your nametag! _

Having never spent more than a few isolated training exercises within boot camp, Ed was quick with this suggestion and broke a smile. "Draw something stupid like a pony-a unicorn. Draw a pansy unicorn."

Fuery extended his arm when Havoc was bringing the pen to it and sighed again with Ed's suggestion. "Really guys?"

"Oh, come on man," Havoc said cheerfully, tone of someone used to doing the drawing. Havoc drew what Roy assumed was supposed to be a unicorn but looked more like a jellyfish with a broadsword in it's head, and then yanked Fuery's rolled up cuff over it. "Okay, you're good man, go." Havoc gave Fuery's back a slap and Fuery left.

"Is that what he did to you?" Roy asked Ed, recognizing Havoc's concealment of Fuery's new tattoo to mean Havoc was investigation Ed's back for a similar mark when Ed first arrive.

"Yeah," Havoc said, gesturing to Ed who was now sitting slouched on the pallet of Stuffed Mushrooms looking beat. "High up on his back so he couldn't touch it."

"They can imitate us, but not the parts they don't know," Ed said, before rolling his shoulders a bit uncomfortably. "But…instead of pen he used dirt."

"Suck it up man," Havoc teased.

Ed smiled with the kind joke before sending his gaze thoughtfully to Roy. The colonel looked tired and a bit rusty as if his joints and reflexes were slower with so many cogs missing from their team. "I met your fake today Roy," Ed said. Roy looked over and lifted an inquisitive eyebrow. "He was nice."

"I met yours today," Roy said, breaking a wide toothy grin. "He was a baby."

Ed soured and lost eye contact for a brief minute before recovering with a sarcastic _hmp_ of a grunt. "Can't compare to the real deal, what can I say." Ed rubbed his fingernails to his chest in jest, and Roy had to smile. With things calming down he took his fire glove off and peeled his shirt over his head so he could bandage his wounds. The bleeding horizontal stripe on his arm registered on Ed's face immediately. "Hawkeye shot you?" Ed asked, sounding surprised.

Roy set his shirt aside and turned a thoughtful eye to Ed. "She did," he said slowly. "How did you know that?" _Was that really Fullmetal in the living room? Did the boy really get so nervous he jumped out the window and ran?_

Ed shrugged quickly, lips twitching as he frantically fought for a comeback. "Hawkeye seems trigger happy." Roy visually studied Ed, captivated with the thought of moving from category 2 to category 1, and with that, understanding Ed was with him all afternoon until they accidentally separated. Ed seemed to sense these thoughts and began to squirm under Roy's penetrating gaze. "Stop looking at me like that," Ed snapped.

Fuery returned with everything they'd need but Ed wasn't appeased. "Don't we have a better fall back position or something for a time of crises!" Ed asked angrily.

"You're sitting on the only one." Havoc gestured to Ed's pallet with the ice pick. "We're in our fall back position. Why do you think we left the school and came here."

"Then it's likely Hawkeye will show up here too," Ed said, keeping his tone thoughtful and controlled, but inside it Roy heard something he'd never heard before. He was able to hear Edward's true tone behind the façade. _I don't know why I don't like gym, I just don't. _Ed was worried about Hawkeye, and not just worried, he missed her.

After speaking Ed lowered his gaze to his left automail knee and rubbed it gently remembering Hawkeye. It was like watching pure metal corrode. Her kind face turned into something else, her touch which had always been soft and almost flighty in that feminine sense, became unyielding and mean. With one grip she had caused a lot of pain, and in her eyes, she did not care. Ed remembered her transformation clearly, it was eerie. "How will we know she's real?" Ed asked, sounding worried. _He'd let that fake in once, hadn't he?_

"I'll know," Roy said firmly. "I'll know just by looking at her." The same way he knew the moment she stepped over the threshold she was danger. Fuery brought an alcohol soaked wipe to Roy's shoulder and cleaned away the blood. Havoc gave Ed a teasing wiggle of his eyebrows after that statement. It was a real, _They Get It On,_ joke, and Ed looked relieved with his own confidence in Roy's Hawkeye-Meter.

"Sides," Havoc said, chuckling a bit. "Can't exactly ask her to start peeling her clothes off, can we." Havoc chuckled and Ed followed. "So we can draw on her." The snickering increased.

"_Havoc," _Roy snapped. "_Edward." _He shot them both disapproving glances of disgust. "That's the first lieutenant you're discussing." _Was a time of crisis now a breeding ground for perverted humor! _And Ed had been in Havoc's sole presence for what, an hour?

Fuery wrapped Roy's bullet slice and although the wound was rekindled and alive with pain, it was the healthy pain of a clean and bandaged wound instead of one which bled and stuck to your clothing like a wet patch of scalp. Fuery had brought medical supplies in one of the small cheap wicker baskets the market sat bakery items in, and after cleaning Roy's wounds was packing it back together when Havoc interrupted him.

"Just where do you think you're taking that?" Havoc asked kindly, pausing Fuery in his work.

"We got injuries too pal," Ed said, reaching for the basket.

Havoc dropped the windbreaker jacket he wore before his shirt and Ed was rolling up his flesh pant leg to reveal a nice bit of blood.

"How'd you get those?" Fuery asked, looking mildly sympathetic. Fuery had once seen a soldier take a bullet in the neck at an upward angle. Roy was there when the man collapsed into Fuery's arms coughing and spitting up blood like a fountain. It was a quick and fatal wound, and with the soldier's body sputtering and twitching the bullet came flopping up the man's throat and pegged Fuery in the chest. Now everything less significant than choking up your own bullet never moved the man. Although Fuery became concerned Roy appreciated how when the blood started flowing Fuery was a rock.

"Glass," Havoc said. His wounds were older, but the bandaging was still very real.

"I only skinned it," Ed said, flesh leg looking as if he'd wadded through a tomato sauce river.

Roy flexed his bandaged arm and stood up. "All right." He assumed command with voice alone. "We obviously have an enemy here, and I don't plan on sitting around and waiting for it to strike again."

_The team looked motivated with this._ "Yeah but sir, not waiting around means splitting up," Fuery said.

"Which is something we're going to have to deal with," Roy said, dismissing this concern quickly. "Our first obstacle will require obtaining transportation." All three soldiers looked confused and Roy cleared his throat a bit bashfully. "Hawkeye had the car." All three soldiers gave sour, almost scolding looks. _Really colonel? _"So since we need one and can't get in touch with Central, we're going to have to steal one."

Ed's expression immediately bled over with confusion. _Oh the novis he was. _"Isn't that breaking the law?" Ed asked, glancing between them for reassurance he wasn't crazy, and as good guys they didn't break the law.

"Yes," Roy said calmly.

Havoc's hand shot up. "I'll do it!" Havoc gave Ed a playful elbow in the shoulder. "You have to learn to jump at these chances Ed, it's only every so often you get to break the law to keep it."

Roy ignored this. "Good. Havoc, you steal the car. Then I would prefer to attack rather than lay around and wait." Everyone agreed with this. "Then we'll attack."

"The school right?" Havoc asked, dropping his bandages back into the flimsy bagel crumbed basket before picking up his shirt.

"How do we know the school is really it?" Fuery asked, the only soldier kept from the playing field and reading their reports on market scheduled breaks. For all of them, who were walking on it, there was no doubt.

"Oh it's the school all right," Ed said, sharing a fast glance with Havoc. "Tonight we witnessed a room that no longer exists."

"Yes," Roy agreed. There was no doubt. "Havoc you steal the car and Fuery you cover him." Roy picked up a pen.

Havoc paused with his shirt half on and offered his bare shoulder. "Nude girl."

Roy tried to draw a nude girl to the best of his ability. He choose a traditional arms folded behind head, tiny waste, legs pulled together stance, but the head came out too small and it looked very amateur.

Fuery was not impressed with the oddly shaped squiggle containing two large and easily recognizable breasts, and uncovered his shoulder a bit reluctantly. "Do I have to have a nude girl too sir?"

Roy brought the pen to Fuery's shoulder. "Yes." Roy drew the same girl and she came out just as bad. "Stay together, and for goodness sake," he offered the pen and gave them both a serious glance, "don't let your guard down." Havoc took the pen and three minutes later he left with Fuery, a naked sunbathing girl on his stomach and Ed's leg. With Ed's leg covered in quite a bit of dried blood, and still bleeding, this was rather difficult and Havoc had to clean a portion of skin in order to get the pen to work.

"You travel on your own, and this is how poorly you clean wounds?" Roy asked, standing at Ed's side and considering the mess. Ed lifted his gaze with bloody fingers and a bloody cotton ball. His expression sat somewhere between surprise and more surprise. Roy didn't wait for a response. "Give me that," he said, snatching the cotton balls.

Ed was offended with the theft and hopped off the pallet stomping his automail down on Roy's toes. "You jerk!"

"Ow!" Roy cried, stepping back and lifting his foot in pain. It felt as if an anvil were just dropped onto his unsuspecting toes. He looked at the visible automail leg and tiny sneakers Ed wore with perplexed wonder and amazement. Although he didn't want to admit it, that had been painful and impressive. "What the hell?" Roy asked, meeting Ed's gaze. The moment their eyes locked he recognized the angry insulted expression on Ed's face and knew what this was about. "That was _you _in the parking lot?" He still couldn't hide the surprise from his voice.

"You're damn right it was." Ed was angry.

Roy offered an apologetic smile as a truce for his 'baby' comment.

"Why don't you try having your ass beat by some skinny bitch and see how you come out." Ed stepped up and gave Roy's chest a strong jab with his automail finger.

"I apologize." Roy grasped the pointing digit and pressed it back so Ed stepped flush to his pallet. "Sit down. Let me see your leg."

"My shoes are dirty."

"Do as I say." Ed lifted his bleeding leg and pressed the soul of his sneaker to Roy's chest.

"I skinned that running from you," Ed said. Roy brought the cotton ball to the long gash running under Ed's knee cap and wiped up the fresh dribbling blood before pressing a wad of them there. "And Hawkeye." Ed's tone was drifting, and Roy looked at the boy's thoughtful expression and felt he could relate. Ed's memory of her was stark. Hawkeye had become a twisted mirror trick. For Ed it felt as if it had happened all at once, like a metamorphosis while she was holding his arm. Her kind face eroded over with something dark and vicious. Her eyes became black stones in their sockets, and there was nothing behind them.

Roy deliberately soaked fresh cotton balls with alcohol and replaced the dry ones on Ed's wound so it would sting. Almost at once Ed looked up hissing in painful surprise. The bandaging was careless and Ed looked uneasy until he recognized the focused look in Roy's face.

Roy meant the pain to steal Ed's full attention. He didn't want Ed dwelling on this. "It wasn't really her," Roy said kindly. "She would never slap you." Carefully he began wiping Ed's leg clean. "Or shoot me." It was clear they were both disturbed by her.

"You know Hawkeye's always been really nice to me," Ed said, growing a smile. "Even back when you were mean to me she was nice."

"I was never mean, I was firm." Roy examined the slice in Ed's skin now that the blood was cleared away. It was deep, but he felt confident with some elastic wound closure bandages Ed would heal fine. "I didn't want you waltzing into the military as a child. You needed someone to make you stand on your own two feet."

Ed grunted softly. "Yeah, maybe I did." Ed flexed his leg gently and his expression soured with the sting of it. "She used to do nice things for me when we were at the base. Include me and stuff." Roy ripped open a few butterfly closures and Ed helped press his wound together as he taped them on. "When I was in the hospital she'd come see me." Roy taped five of them in place. "And include Alphonse even…when she probably shouldn't have." Roy smiled, that sounded like Hawkeye. Ed prodded the butterflies holding his cut together before sitting back when Roy laid a fat bandage and taped it down. "If anything's happened to her..." Ed said, giving his head a slow shake of concentrated thought. "I am gonna be a whole world of pissed."

Roy smiled, and laid his hand in Ed's hair. "A whole world of pissed," Roy repeated, marveling at the small expression. Ed looked up and considered Roy's fond smile and swore he saw a bit of pride he'd never admit. "So will I." Ed was quiet when he stroked Ed's head kindly before bringing his hand to the well bandaged knee. It was small, and it worried him. Ed's flesh leg was very slender. He could wrap his hand from front to back. Carefully he took Ed's leg in his grasp and turned it slightly to make sure the blood was fully cleaned before giving it a squeeze. Where ever they were going, it wasn't exactly a place he wanted Fullmetal charging into. Their enemy seemed well equipped to deal with alchemists and had proven to be far more clever than they could have anticipated. Still, at the same time, leaving Ed behind wasn't really an option. There wasn't a safe place to leave the boy, and he only had four men. Of those four it just happened to be that one was missing, and one was a boy.

"Hey," Ed said. He gave his leg a demanding push forward and startled Roy's gaze upward. "Don't start second guessing me cause I have small knees Colonel." Roy smiled. It was like Ed was reading his mind. "You've seen what I can do." Ed locked their gaze and offered a slow convincing nod before gesturing at his wound with the automail. "I just have thin legs." Ed pulled away and hopped off the pallet seemingly as good as new. "It's from the automail." Ed looked down at his legs with a certain level of disgust the automail was so visible and his flesh leg looked more like someone had attached a white bloody wasps nest to the top. "But this is what I have to deal with," Ed said, giving a heavy exasperated sigh. "I am not that proportionate some places anymore." Ed stretched his leg before carefully sitting back to keep the weight off it.

Roy deliberately sat next to the boy. "I want to tell you something Fullmetal, and I don't want you to be offended." Ed looked up with a puzzled expression. _Where was this going? _"I don't want you to take it the wrong way if when we go into this, I keep you from the front line."

Roy felt this was necessary. He was the adult here. He was the responsible adult. _Patient. Friendly._ In his mind he stood before a lobby chair, holding hands with a boy half his height.

"I am not sure who is behind this, but it makes sense to assume you may be their target," he said. "They were preparing for an alchemist." This was a logical deduction, and he knew Hawkeye had been thinking this for a while.

"You're an alchemist too Roy." Ed was not convinced. "They could have been preparing for you."

"They lured us here with a unheard of substance Fullmetal. You're the only state alchemist researching random things about Alchemy."

"As a cover so I can get mine and Al's body back!"

"They don't know that," Roy said, turning to the boy. "No one _knows _that." Ed broke eye contact and looked off into the store room. "I didn't bring us here to rage a war Fullmetal. If we really have encountered something that could be dangerous then we'll get some information and call for back up. There's no reason to rage a small person attack when we can use the resources at hand."

"No one planned it, I know," Ed muttered. "But I am apart of it and I've sacrificed to get this far, so don't be offended when I tell you I might ignore your commands on the field." Ed hopped back off the pallet and gave his leg a couple test stomps. Roy tried to digest what Ed had just said while feeling as if he'd just been slapped.

_Ignore his commands?_ Ignore his commands!Mission or not it was _not _to be forgotten _, HE WAS THE COLONEL! _Roy opened his mouth to beat Ed's ears when there was a knock on the door.

Roy was on his feet immediately. He pushed in front of Ed and slipped his fire glove back on.

"Colonel it's us," Havoc whispered.

Roy approached the door and grasped the handle. Ed came to his side but he shook his head and waved the boy back. Ed obeyed and scoot into the corner and almost completely concealed himself before clapping the automail into a blade. Roy opened the door.

"We got one," Havoc said, the minute the door opened. Havoc was quick and was already peeling his sleeve up with Fuery doing the same. They were polite, they didn't advance, they didn't report, they shows the poorly drawn nude women before even making a move. "Good?" Havoc asked, rolling his sleeve back into place. "Now you guys." Havoc glanced around before a look of concerned anger swelled into his face with Ed's absence. "Where the hell is Ed?" Havoc demanded, sounding torn between an accusation and passive rationale it was plausible Ed had separated for a perfectly logical reason.

Ed stepped from his hiding place quickly. "Relax," Ed said, lifting the right side of his shorts. Havoc had drawn Ed's girl on the boy's right thigh where she was hidden. "What type of car did you get Havoc?"

Havoc stepped back and opened the door. In the back of the parking lot was a new black SUV.

"Were you followed?" Roy asked.

"We took a scenic route. I don't think so sir," Fuery said.

They wasted no time with talk and snuck out the back running and ducking. The parking lot behind the market had become a black void outlined with meager landscaping and the towering black figures of the surrounding buildings. Within it there was only a few scattered cars and it gave the vulnerable feeling of an empty arena. The flat plane made them easy to see and gave everything else the element of surprise.

Moving quickly they tried to stay quiet, but half way there Ed stumbled and, while managing his balance, grabbed the back of Roy's shirt like a cat. Roy startled and Fuery responded poorly, jumping with enough fright he nudged Ed before the boy could gain his footing and knocked him into Havoc.

Roy stopped moving at once. "We're men here!" he whispered angrily, throwing a finger into their faces. "Let's act like it!"

They reached the car and Havoc took the wheel and Roy took the passenger's side. "We're going to have to split up when we arrive," Roy said, twisting in his seat to talk to Fuery and Ed who were in back. "If we all infiltrate at once, we're simply stupid." Havoc was driving inconspicuously and had taken the fastest route to the school. "Havoc and Fullmetal cover Fuery and I."

"No way," Havoc said, raising his voice with outrage. "Ed and I are the only ones who know the school."

"And Havoc knows it better than me," Ed confessed. "I basically just know where my classes are. The place is a maze."

"Fine, Havoc you go in with me," Roy said, sitting back and closing his eyes for a moment of rest. He could feel the tension in the car. They did not like that they were splitting up, they did not like that there were only four of them, and those being left in the car did not like the fact they were being left in the car. Roy sat waiting to see if anyone would object, but when Havoc pulled into the school and the car was still silent he felt pleased.

This late at night all class was over and the school building was dark. "I've seen the school before, but after hours in the dark like this it looks like a prison," Fuery said, gazing out the window. Ed gave a barely audible snort with this comment.

Havoc turned the headlights off the moment they entered the drive. They approached the building in darkness and Havoc killed the engine and let them roll silently to the back gym track.

"Don't go in the main doors. Everyone goes in the main doors when they're coming to attack," Ed advised leaning into the front. "Go in the side doors by the missing room." Ed pointed to the small side door and they all looked at it.

"Boss you follow me," Havoc said, beckoning for Roy to follow.

Roy gave a nod and looked into the back of the car where Fuery and Fullmetal sat attentive. "You two sit tight, we'll scout things out and then come back to formulate a plan." Ed looked sour with this news, but Fuery gave a fast solute. "If we're not back in twenty…" Roy paused. If they weren't back, what were the options? There was no back up on site and Hawkeye was still missing. "If we're not back in twenty, Fuery drive both of you to our fall back. From there Fullmetal you call headquarters for backup and Fuery leave to the base and bring soldiers to the school." He lifted a hand and pointed sternly at both of them. "Absolutely under no circumstance are either of you to enter until that is done. If we are not back, then the enemy is a powerful one, and I will be very pissed if these orders aren't followed."

"Yes sir," Fuery said, nodding enthusiastically.

"You really think there is something in there that could take on the Flame Alchemist?" Ed asked, looking to appease Roy's vanity rather than his authority.

Roy was not fooled. "Ed, I mean it."

Ed scowled. "Fine," Ed grumbled miserably.

Roy followed Havoc toward the school and once they approached they threw their backs against it and caught their breath. "Do you know where we're going Havoc?" Roy asked. Outside the night air was picking up to a steady wind rustling the trees and casting movement. The glow of the moon was just starting, and soon a pale white would flicker in and out with the cloud cover.

"No," Havoc whispered, shaking his head and reaching for the outside door. "I only know this is where all the weird stuff has been happening. I'll take you to the missing room," Havoc said, breaking the lock and opening the door with ease. "Maybe you'll see something the chief didn't."

They entered the school and it was like walking into an abandoned museum. The ceilings were high stretching shadows up into them and gracing the floor with long slivers of light from the windows. They kept their steps silent and took the first hall. Leaving the windows meant leaving the light, and the interior halls were caverns of darkness. What bits of light penetrated were bouncing off the shining wood floors and quickly absorbed in the deep wood paneling. There was no mistaking it, the place was creepy, and somehow, without any evidence, there was a very distinct and unmistakable feeling of being watched. Inside the school, they were not alone.

* * *

"We're sitting ducks." Ed growled slouched in the backseat with his feet on the back of Roy's vacant chair.

"Edward, try and relax." Fuery smiled but the boy wouldn't have it. Ed began a

soft bounce with his foot before startling when the school lit up for a second and part of the

front corner shot out into an awkward slope.

"Alchemy!" Ed yelled, jumping up in his seat and leaning to the window. "Did you see it?" Ed opened the door and stepped out into the wind.

"That's not the colonel." Fuery exited and struggled to make sense of the dark building up ahead. From a first floor window a brief alchemic flash could just be seen.

"Think it's Havoc?" Ed asked, watching intently for any sign of danger. The only orders were if Mustang and Havoc didn't return. There weren't any orders for what to do while they kicked the enemy's butt. "Fuery, think it's Havoc?" Ed asked, glancing to the man before panicking with Fuery's absence. "Fuery?" Ed whispered, turning in a fast circle, but the man was gone. "Fuery!" Ed yelled a bit louder. He looked in every direction, but all around him the school's immaculate landscaping was blowing in the wind. "Fuery!"

The sound of footsteps began, softly at first, and then running quickly towards the car. Ed backed into the side of it feeling frantic. He had never driven before and now didn't seem the time to learn. That being said, he wasn't the one with the keys, and locking himself in a stationary coffin didn't seem like a good idea either! Trying desperately not to freak out Ed dropped to his knees and scrambled under the car to hide. The footsteps were approaching and laying flat on his stomach in the grass Ed looked at the shadowed pair of feet that came to the car.

* * *

Okay everyone that was chapter 9!

THANK YOU soooo much for the awesome reviews to chapter 8! They were great! Really had me smiling and laughing. You all have _no_ idea how happy they make me, since my week has been so insane, I read them all before posting chapter 9 and they made my Friday night!

Chapter 10: Human Inferno will be up next Friday 10/26/12. Then there is only one chapter left!

To those voicing preferences for stories to come – Thank you! I read several interested in _The Silent Heart_ (ah, my baby, lol), but it was exciting to hear many were open minded. Posting and writing at the same time is a challenge, but I will continue unless I think I need a break to wrap a story up. I will make a commitment before I end this piece so you know what story and date it will arrive.

To those OHSHC fans in here – I was thrilled to hear it! I am way more excited to post my OHSHC stuff now! Before I felt kind of alone, a lot of what seems to be going on with OHSHC fics makes me feel like that category is a zoo! It's good to know there are some sane people over there as well.

Okay, that's enough chatting for now – thank you again to everyone! Please share your thoughts with this chapter as well. This story is a bit old, so even though I scrubbed it, it's never ever the same as writing at your current level. When you look at old stuff, all you see is flaws. : ) Tell me what you thought!


	10. Human Inferno

Another Run of Events  
Chapter Ten  
_Human Inferno_

- mirage -

In the dark the figure wasn't recognizable and it looked in more than one car window before there was a whisper.

"Sir?" Hawkeye called out investigating the car. "Colonel?" She became louder.

Ed lifted his head and looked out into what he could see of the lawn and her feet. _It was Hawkeye._ Her voice was unmistakable, and after confirming the car was empty she stepped back and started a quick jog toward the school.

Ed crawled to the edge and looked out at her. In the darkness he could just see the outline of her figure. Her hair was up and she was dressed differently out of uniform, but it was her. She looked innocent, and Ed pulled himself half out from under the car feeling alarmed she was all by herself, but reluctant to give away his position if she wasn't herself.

Hawkeye was almost thirty feet away when she slowed to a stop and looked about herself as if frightened. Ed kept silent, before startling when she looked back toward the van and spotted him. Even in the dark he could see surprise take her frame and she was running back toward him. "Ed!" she whispered softly.

Ed scrambled out from under the car and backed up behind the open passenger side door. "Hawkeye, don't come too close to me," he said firmly, steadying his hands to clap his arm into a blade.

She ran up to the front of the car and stopped with confusion. "What?" she asked, looking at his aggressive stance with worry. "Ed, what's going on here? Where is the colonel? Why are you out here all by yourself?"

Ed didn't know how to answer these questions. She sounded like herself, and looked perfect. It looked like her! "Where have you been?" Ed asked.

"I was on the way to you and couldn't make it."

This answer was crap. "Where have you been!" Ed snapped, lifting his hands a bit higher. _Hawkeye didn't give lackluster answers like that!_

"Ed," she said, sounding hurt. "I was on the way to our house, something ran me off the road. I hit a tree. I made it to a phone as quickly as I could and called. The number didn't go through to the house and when I got there it was burning." This all sounded plausible. "You have to understand I am on foot, and I am moving at that speed." She took a step closer. "I went to the market but no one was there. Now I am here." Ed took a step back. All of this sounded perfectly workable. It all could have happened. As it was their mission left Hawkeye alone a lot. It would have been easy for her to be ambushed and for that ambush to delay communication to them! "Ed, listen to me," she said, taking another step forward. "I want us to go inside, I don't think it's that safe out here."

Ed felt cornered. Most of him, almost all of him, wanted to go to her. If this was a fake Hawkeye, then this one was much better than the first. "Hawkeye," Ed said softly, keeping his hands ready. Alone, and running slower with his knee cut, it was an unnecessary risk. He should at least give Roy and Havoc their twenty minutes. "My orders are to stay here."

"That can't be right," she said, shaking her head. "Ed, the colonel never would have left you here on your own." _Overprotective statements like this also sounded like Hawkeye!_

"Go in without me," Ed said, but she looked confused. "I will stay here." She looked at the car with confusion before coming forward a few steps so there was nothing but the passenger side door between them. "Hawkeye, I don't want you to get any closer to me!" Ed said firmly.

"What! Why?" She grabbed the open door to move around it, but Ed threw his hand forward and held it steady.

"It doesn't matter why Lieutenant!" Ed barked. "That's an order! Stay where you are!" Hawkeye froze, and Ed felt a mixture of awkwardness he had just given Hawkeye the first order of his life, and fear she wasn't listening to him. He believed a real Hawkeye would listen to him, and a fake Hawkeye would want to attack him.

Hawkeye was dead silent, and even in the dark Ed could see a bit of sadness in her confused expression. "Okay Ed," she whispered, taking a tiny step back. "Okay, I won't come any closer to you. I am sorry."

"Okay, good!" He wasn't sure when he began to panic, but he was assuming it was when she moved close enough to touch the door.

"Ed, if you really don't want to come with me, then please, lock yourself in the car." She pointed to it but didn't break eye contact. "I am going into the school to look for the colonel. As soon as I find someone I will come back."

Ed felt his anxiety grow. This sounded like another perfectly plausible plan! _Was this really her!_ Should he go with her! He could go and just keep a bit of distance. He could take her all right if she attacked, and there was plenty of space for a fight.

Hawkeye seemed to sense his indecision and she gave her head a small shake. "I can tell I am making you nervous." What an understatement. "I don't want to and I know you can take care of yourself. If this is where the colonel left you then please…" she gestured to the car. "Just stay put Ed, and I'll be right back." She turned and left without further conversation and Ed felt flabbergasted. He dropped his arms and stepped about the open passenger side door watching her run toward the school.

Should he go? _Should he go!_ Ed looked about himself, but in the dark visibility was limited, and of what he could see there was no one nearby. Fuery seemed to have completely disappeared. "Wait," Ed said softly. She was almost out of sight, and he was changing his mind. He'd go with her and keep his distance. If she became crazy, he'd bolt. "Wait!" he called, running around the car to follow.

She was barely visible. The school was casting a black shadow into the lawn making activity near the building impossible to see, and seconds after she ran into it, he heard her scream and she was running back out. She made it five feet before it appeared something hit her and she fell over.

Ed broke into a run. He sparked his arm into a blade on his way and stopped ten feet from her trying to look everywhere at once. "Hawkeye?" he whispered, sweeping the terrain with his eyes. "Hawkeye, get up." With the wind everything was moving and it gave the sense that everything was attacking. "Hawkeye?" Slowly he approached, keeping the blade trained on her because she was the only thing close to him. _This could be a trap._

She was stomach down on the ground, her hands sprawled forward near her face as if the blow had come from behind her. Carefully Ed stepped up to her side and nudged her hand with his left sneaker. "Hawkeye?" It was hard to see a wound, so he didn't become truly alarmed until he noticed some of the darkness on the blades of grass around her smeared onto his sneaker. This meant there was blood in the lawn, and that she was bleeding fast.

Immediately Ed dropped to his knees at her side and grabbed her shoulder. "Hawkeye? Are you conscious?" He pressed his hand into her neck and felt for her pulse. _It was there_. "Shit." As quickly as he could he slipped his hands beneath her arms and stood up. He yanked once, testing to see how hard it would be to drag her. It wasn't going to be easy, but it wasn't overly hard either. "Hawkeye, hang on," Ed whispered, dragging her back a few steps closer to the car. If he could get her inside, he could use the light to see what happened and if necessary, learn to drive on his very first trip to the hospital. "Hang in there!" he groaned, straining to move her.

Hawkeye suddenly broke out coughing and the sound of it startled Ed badly enough he fumbled and lowered her closer to the ground. "Uh," she moaned, and lifted her head enough to see him. "Ed," she rasped. "Be careful."

Ed lowered her back to the ground and knelt down. "I am trying to get you back to the car." He felt trapped. Somehow it was different with girls than it was with boys, and he was worried he'd injure her further just touching her.

"Where's the enemy?" she croaked.

"I don't know. Not with us. What hit you?"

"I am bleeding but…" Hawkeye rasped, propping herself up on an elbow and slowly rolling to her back. She groaned with the movement and across her chest was a bright bleeding line which had smeared blood down her shirt with the dragging. Breathing heavily she looked at it before bringing her hands to the buttons of her shirt and popping them. "I…" she lifted her gaze to Ed, and he looked uncomfortable with her undressing. "I am opening my shirt." He nodded, and immediately closed his eyes. "No Ed," she managed a weak smile. "Keep them open please, and watch for danger." Ed nodded but didn't open his eyes. "I just want to see the wound and then, if you could help me get up."

Ed opened his eyes and looked out into the lawn. "Okay." He did his best to keep a visual while trying to determine exactly how long Havoc and Roy had been gone. If it hadn't been twenty minutes, they were getting close to it. _Was he supposed to leave Fuery here if they passed the twenty minutes?_

"Shit," Hawkeye whispered, and it was the first time Ed had heard her swear. He smiled despite himself and looked to her. She had opened her shirt enough the skin of her stomach and chest were visible about her bra. Running from her collar bone downward toward her stomach was a rather significant cut as if she's caught the tip of a swinging sword. "Aw, dammit." Hawkeye lifted her gaze to Ed and he startled when he was caught looking at her. He was looking at the wound but it was also in between her boobs, and he blushed. Hawkeye smiled warmly. "A bra is no different than a bathing suit," she said kindly. She lifted a hand for help and he took it. "Don't forget that."

Together she made it to her feet and with her arm over Ed's shoulder they went back towards the car. "Did the colonel want someone to watch the car?" she asked, voice a bit strained with her injury.

"No, he went in with Havoc and he was supposed to be back in twenty minutes. I was waiting with Fuery." Ed glanced to her, but she had her eyes closed and her expression was tight. "Even though I don't know where he is, our orders were to fall back if they didn't return. So we're going to have to do it instead."

"I don't think that's a good idea." They made it to the car and Hawkeye leaned herself into the open passenger side catching her breath.

Ed found this statement confusing. "What do you mean?" _Hawkeye never contradicted Mustang unless it was to his face._ Roy had even once told him, _she is as loyal as they come, and I am lucky._ At the time Roy said this, Ed had been with the military only three weeks, and he saw Hawkeye as a helpful scapegoat getting Roy out of paperwork and found this comment obnoxious. He felt insulted for her that Roy enjoyed having her around because she made office work easier. Now, he understood how naive that perspective had been, and so never admitted to anyone other than Alphonse that he had misjudged a situation and statement so badly he thought something as deep as what the colonel had with Hawkeye had to do with paperwork.

"I don't think we should leave them," Hawkeye said, still catching their breath. "I think we should go in there and help." Hawkeye was holding her unbuttoned shirt closed.

Ed glanced at the school. "You know I've never been too rigid with orders Hawkeye but…" _Was he really going to be the advocate they follow orders here?_

"They're going to need our help," Hawkeye said, tipping her head into the car to rest. "They're going to need us."

Hearing this statement felt so wrong to Ed he felt his mouth dry up and he stared at her. Slowly he felt as if she were telling him she was an imposter. She had fashioned herself to look, sound, and act like Hawkeye, but it couldn't think like Hawkeye. These two statements, both individually, and certainly back to back were proof something was wrong.

First she didn't want to follow Roy's orders, and now she didn't think the colonel could handle himself? Ed knew she did believe Roy could handle himself, and that she followed his orders flawlessly.

"You're right," Ed said, feeling a thick heavy feeling grow in his limbs. _He had been inches from her. She could have stabbed him, or even slit his throat._ "What does the colonel know anyway, right? Egocentric jerk." _He had to get away from her._

Hawkeye would have ripped him a new one if he ever said this to her, but instead this Hawkeye smiled a tired smile. "Grab me some bandages and I'll clean myself up." Ed looked at the car. It was a coffin now more than ever, and he wasn't getting inside it.

"We don't have any," he lied. "We'd need to fall back if you want some. Are you bleeding that bad?"

Hawkeye closed her eyes and looked devastated with this news. Her expression of pain looked real, and her cut certainly was, but Ed didn't feel like waiting around to see more of this. As soon as she closed her eyes he took off toward the school. He made it over ten feet before she realized what happened.

"Ed!" she called after him. "Where are you going!" Ed was running as fast as he could and his knee was singing with pain. "Don't leave me here Ed!" She gave one last attempt at her act before charging after him. "You little pain in the ass!"

Ed stopped and spun around. Knowing the alchemy flash would give him away, and not caring, he clapped and threw his hands at the ground cascading razor sharp stalagmites upward and toward her.

* * *

The hallway outside of 3G was just as Havoc had left it. With Havoc standing guard Roy took a moment to sketch the array he'd need to open the wall like Fullmetal had, and he confirmed the room was in fact no longer apart of the school. However, what he pointed out, was that the landscaping was fresh, and the exterior lacing the outside wall was new. "While I'll admit it's a little weird they completely removed the room from the blueprint," Roy said, sealing the small window he'd made to look outside. "This isn't exactly abracadabra magic." Man had removed 3G, most likely with hired help and a landscaping crew. It wasn't all _poof it disappeared._

"Well it looked like it earlier," Havoc said, watching Mustang with a sour frown. _He wasn't that frazzled when he was with Ed was he?_

Roy stepped away from the construction site and dusted his hands off. "Lets go to the principal's office." He began leading the way, and the halls were near pitch black away from the windows. "If we're going to break and enter, we mine as well look at whatever we want."

Havoc was following in silent agreement before a sound, similar to a squeaky knob turning slowly, echoed down the hallway and stopped them in their tracks. Immediately, they moved along side the wall and waited, but nothing followed it.

"Could it be the heating?" Havoc whispered, after a long silence. Roy felt at a loss. It could be the heating, or a pipe, or some other odd type of electronic such as a vending machine or water fountain. "We can take the back hall and loop around the school. I know the way." Havoc gestured toward the opposite end of the hall, past 3G, and Roy glanced thoughtfully down toward the narrow side door they'd entered, before balking at the sight of Fullmetal sneaking in the door.

"What the hell!" Roy whispered, struggling to see clearly in the dark. Havoc turned quickly to investigate, but in the light from the windows it was easy to see Ed's blonde head poke in from outside and look around. "I am going to kill him," Roy said angrily. "I specifically told him to stay out of the school."

"Well Ed's always been pretty determined to get into the action," Havoc said kindly.

"I don't want to hear it," Roy snapped. He turned an angry look to Havoc's shadowed face and tried to move forward with their plan. "Go ahead, I know the way and I'll catch up." Havoc looked reluctant to split up, but not uncertain they couldn't handle themselves. "See if you can find anything of interest."

Havoc gave a nod and left in a silent jog to the right, and Roy left in an angry stalk toward Ed who had snuck away from the door, and in the dark, had not yet realized he was being watched.

"Fullmetal," Roy whispered, approaching quickly. Ed had his knees slightly buckled and a hand on the wall as if he'd get lost in the blackness of the halls, but with Roy's voice his head spun around. "You had better have a good explanation for this."

"I do," Ed said, sounding panicked. Roy stepped up to the boy's side and glanced wearily about the open halls. "Fuery disappeared. And a fake Hawkeye came at me. I tried to get away from her but, I did a number on the lawn," Ed whispered.

"You're sure it wasn't her?" Roy asked. _He had to be certain._

"Positive."

"And Fuery, you were separated?" That didn't sound like Fuery or Fullmetal either for that matter.

"It wasn't a walk in the park," Ed said, defensively before indicating his flesh arm with his automail. From somewhere within his tee shirt sleeve a cut was leaking blood down it. "Envy is here."

"Is it deep?"

"I'll live."

Roy considered this change. His first impulse was to scold Ed for not continuing his plan without Fuery and traveling to the fall back position, alerting Central, and bringing reinforcements. However this, like so many others times in the history of Fullmetal-meets-the-military, was another exception. _Ed could not drive_. It wasn't that it was unsafe, such as giving soldiers training with live ammo, or unwise, such as storing hard liquor on base instead of only low grade beer, it was skillfully impossible, like a disability. _An age driven handicap._ Ed had no idea how to drive a car, and if he tried, might kill himself and others. So without Fuery Roy's order became null and void. Even with the return of imposter Hawkeye, Ed would have had to improvise on his original commands.

Roy disagreed with Ed in the school, and now needed a new popper so the rest of his orders could be continued, but understood this could not be done with Ed.

"Fine," Roy said reluctantly. "Stay by my side, stay silent, and do not use alchemy. I accidentally set off a few arrays." Ed was nodding with his orders, and Roy swept the boy with his eyes. Ed had blood on his flesh finger tips, but the blood leaking from his arm had not reached his wrist yet. Roy found this only slightly less alarming then the dark shadow about Ed's right sneaker which he realized, while speaking, was blood. "Ed," Roy lifted his gaze accusingly. "Are you injured?"

Ed gave his head a quick shake, but it was a quick and guilty shake. _I didn't do it! _"I took a quick hit," Ed said, sounding nervous. "He's fast, I tried to dodge it."

Roy stepped back and looked behind Ed at the trail of single bloody footprints leading up to the boy. "God dammit Ed." Roy grabbed Ed by his automail arm and pulled the boy forward to stand up straight but Ed hissed with immediate pain. "Where is it?" Roy demanded, unable to see fine detail in the dark.

"Okay, my leg too," Ed whined, sounding worried. "Stop pulling, it hurts."

"When we are on missions, I expect honesty," Roy said angrily. "I _expect _it, do you understand? Your compliance is required." Roy threw a stern pointing finger into Ed's face, but with the dark and Ed's bangs he couldn't be sure Ed was looking at it. Angrily he grabbed Ed's chin and jerked Ed's face upward. He had more to say, _if you lie to me one more time while on this mission_, but he fell silent when he was able to get a good look at Ed's face. Ed's mouth was pinched tightly with pain, and in what little light there was, Ed's golden eyes had an unnatural sheen that said the boy was going to cry at any moment. "It hurts that much?" Roy asked, voice falling soft and kind. Ed blinked once, before swallowing stiffly, and giving the tiniest of nods. "Did Envy hit anything important?" Roy asked, feeling a new sense of concern bubble to the surface. _How much blood did it take to make a footprint?_

"I bandaged it," Ed whispered, voice weak with sadness.

These words frightened Roy. "Ed," he said sternly, tightening the hold on Ed's chin. "_Did he hit anything important?_"

Ed shook his head and pulled free of Roy's grasp. "I don't think he did."

"Okay then," Roy said, feeling a rush of concern. "Come with me, we'll meet up with Havoc." He turned to lead the way, but Ed grabbed his arm before he managed a step.

"I…" Ed mumbled, looking uncomfortable. "I…can't walk well."

"What?" Roy asked, glancing down to the bloody pencil thin flesh leg and bloody sneaker Ed was wearing. "Can you get to the principal's office with me?" Ed shook his head. _Roy had enough_. He glanced up the hall into the blackness where Havoc had gone. "All right Ed, we're not staying in the middle of the hall, and we're not staying here, do you understand?"

"I am sorry," Ed croaked, tightening his grasp. "I tried to dodge it."

"I am not upset about that," Roy said angrily, taking the automail in a stern grip. "Let whatever weight you need to rest on your arm and I'll help." Roy took a few steps from the wall and pulled Ed along. The minute he did so Ed limped downward badly, and on the second step cried out softly causing him to stop.

"I can't! It hurts too much, it freaking hurts," Ed said, brining his hand to his face and covering it.

Roy knelt down at Ed's side. _They needed to get out of the hall and to find Havoc._ "Stand still," he ordered, wrapping his arms about Ed's torso. Ed went up like a board and pushed him away.

"Don't grab at me, you're not carrying me!" Ed flushed with a combination of embarrassment and sensation of helplessness.

Roy disengaged his arms with confusion. "Ed, if you can't move yourself out of the hall, I will. You…" Roy trailed off, when Ed tipped his head downward for some fast breaths. "Fullmetal, we can't just stay in the hall, you understand that." Roy didn't know what to make of Ed's sudden hyperventilation, but on every account what Havoc had playfully referred to as his colonel-senses were telling him Ed was no longer to be considered a moving piece on his chess board. _Their group of 5 had just become 2._ Roy gave Ed enough time to take three deep breaths before continuing. "Pull yourself together Fullmetal," he said sternly. Ed looked up with this order and Roy cursed at the small tears on Ed's face.

"I am scared," Ed admit softly. Roy tipped Ed's face back up and wiped the tears off Ed's right cheek with his thumb. "I think the cut is pretty deep."

"We'll deal with it," Roy said, voice both tender and fierce. He tightened his grip on Ed's chin and gave the boy a reassuring nod. "We'll move out of the hall and I'll take a look at it." Ed sniffled and lifted his arms the tiniest bit signaling approval. Roy wrapped his own about Ed's slender torso and stood.

Roy hugged Ed's middle the way you would a pole, and he stood putting strength in his legs uncertain of what he'd need for Ed's weight. The automail looked as if they would be heavy, but seeing Ed use them freely implied they wouldn't be. Roy was relieved to find that Ed's weight did not feel burdensome at all. In many ways it seemed odd there wasn't more, as if Ed weighed too little to actually be another fully operating person.

Ed's hands went to Roy's shoulders, and Roy loosened his grip so Ed dropped downward and their chests became parallel. This felt more comfortable because it was natural the way a hug was natural. Roy felt capable of moving easily and went to turn around when Ed adjusted himself and curled both arms about his neck.

Roy's step faltered, unprepared for such an intimate gesture. Rapidly he felt the same sense of alarm, which had come to him with Ed sleeping inches away in his bed, meet an awkwardness that was embarrassed by the honesty of Ed's embrace.

"Don't tell anyone you carried me," Ed muttered softly, laying his head down.

Roy felt paralyzed until the weight of Ed's head lulled comfortably onto his right shoulder. Then suddenly he remembered carrying his sister-in-law's four year old, and his body knew what to do. _Carry him upstairs to nap with his dinosaur pillow and under-the-sea blanket._

Roy felt a brief smile ghost across his face and it was welcomed. "I'll tell them I left you to fend for yourself," he teased, turning around and heading after Havoc. Ed muttered a soft sound and it was fascinating to hear it so close. He considered, next to their sleepover, which he would take to his professional grave, this was as close as they had ever been.

"When you find the lieutenant, you won't leave me right?" Ed asked.

Roy went to answer that he would not, before hesitating when he didn't understand the question. _What lieutenant? Hawkeye or Havoc? _Ed never referred to them so formally. "Of course not," he said, approaching the first intersection. Far down at the end of the hall was a dim light and what he assumed was the light to the principal's office through the closed door. This foggy glow helped exaggerate the silhouette of a second person who entered the hallway from the intersection and stopped Roy in his tracks.

Walking silently, and keeping close to the wall before sneaking into B wing was another Ed.

Ed made it only four steps before noticing Roy and the instant look of surprise and excitement which swept across Ed's face became one of immediate confusion and horror. First, over the fact Roy was carrying something, and it looked to be a person, and then traumatically with the stunning realization that something was an Ed-Look-A-Like.

Ed stepped back with immediate panic, but Roy didn't move. He felt as if his body had cemented itself from the neck down, and he couldn't tell if he was holding a shotgun with the barrel inches from his neck, or looking at one being aimed at him. _There was only one Fullmetal, and either the one in his arms, or the one in the hall was a fake._

The Ed in Roy's arm shifted with a bit of confusion when Roy's walking suddenly stopped. "What?" Ed whispered. "Are we still meeting up with everyone?"

Roy didn't know how to begin to answer that, and his eyes were locked on the short, uninjured, Ed who was slowly backing down the middle of the dark hall with his hands raised. Moments after arriving, he had seen the Ed in the hallway glance at his hands, and although he was currently holding an adolescent boy, he was wearing his ammunition glove.

The Ed in the hallway put ten feet between them, and with the automail hand raised, used the flesh hand, which moved in a controlled and slow fashion as if at gun point, to grasp a handful of his shorts and pull them up his right thigh.

In the dark, Roy could not clearly see Ed's flesh leg, never mind what he assumed would be a poorly drawn nude girl which Ed was trying to show him. However it was the fact the Edward not in his arms was trying to show him a poorly drawn nude girl which meant the one in his arms, the one breathing an inch from his jugular, was the imposter.

"You know Ed," Roy said softly, trying to get his bearings. _He had just picked the thing up. Not the slightest suspicion! _"I am actually injured myself." He didn't think this lie would work, but he had to try. "I don't think I can carry you." He paused directly after this statement, and the Ed on his shoulder lifted its head and looked at him.

"Colonel, you can't just leave me in the middle of the hallway," it protested, and it's voice was perfect. "How will I signal you if an enemy comes?" it asked, before wincing. Roy watched the imposter Ed's face cripple with a moment of pain, and it looked real. Even knowing this Edward was fake, the visible pain within Imposter Ed's expression still roused alarm. "I think I am bleeding on you," Imposter Ed said softly, before giving the softest whine. "I don't think I did a good job bandaging it." Imposter Ed looked up and captured Roy's eyes. "Will you make sure for me?"

Ten feet ahead standing in the hall Ed had his jaw on the floor. _Envy was making him out to be a pansy!_

"Yes," Roy said, forcing what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "Let me put you down, and I will." Roy dropped to a knee. "My right arm is rather sore," he said, before panicking with the realization if the Imposter he was holding didn't hurt his right arm, he'd have no reason to be injured. "Havoc and I broke into 3G," he said, leaving it at that and hoping that would explain an injury. Carefully he set the fake Ed back on its feet, and it immediately limped downward on the right flesh side. "Can you sit?" Roy asked, glancing up in what he hoped was an unnoticed glance about the hall.

The hallway was vacant. The real Ed had vanished.

Imposter Ed did not try to sit. "Colonel, I think we should regroup. We're weak split up like this." _Is that what the imposter wanted? To find everyone?_

Roy gave a nod, and went to ask _don't you think I should look at your wound first?_ The imposter had been using the injury to propel him, therefore it should not want to contradict him by casting doubt on the injury. Yet, this didn't feel right, and for a moment Roy didn't see why asking this question seemed out of place before realizing the Imposter Ed was making him nervous, while the real Ed had to obey him. "Ed, sit down this second," Roy snapped. "If you can't walk I need to know what we're dealing with before we can regroup. You're bleeding all over both of us." Roy grabbed the lower half of his shirt which was beginning to feel cold and wet with blood.

Imposter Ed looked miffed with this order, and glared for a moment before plopping back to its rear like a sullen child. "You don't have to get all bossy while I am hurt," it complained.

Roy grunted with pleasure he now had the upper hand. It was sitting complacently, and crouched he could push himself away and set it on fire. A small combustion about its torso to ground it while he pushed back, and then with that distance, a larger controlled burst to engulf it. Roy lifted his gloved hand the slightest bit and brought his thumb and middle finger together with Ed reaching to his shorts. Imposter Ed grabbed the right side and pulled them up.

Across the inside of Imposter Ed's thigh, above the bandages on its knee, was a scrap of bloody cloth tied about the boy's leg. Ed grabbed it and pulled it upward revealing a large five inch slice just below a height where Roy would have had real panic. "Oh, this freaking kills," Ed hissed, tipping his head back in pain, and suddenly Roy felt his certainty he was going to set this Ed on fire collapse. "It's really open, so I tied this tight," Ed said, gesturing to the deep cut with a bloody finger.

Roy swallowed feeling panicked. With the windows in this main hall everything was incredibly dim, but he could see the cut, and he understood the dark smears were red blood. _Would this thing have cut itself so?_ Frantically he looked about the scrawny flesh thigh for a poorly drawn nude woman but he couldn't see one. _He couldn't see one on the other Ed either._ So was he certain? _Was he a hundred percent certain this boy was not Fullmetal?_ He looked at the automail, but it looked recognizable. Ed's weight had seemed appropriate, the built appropriate, the clothing was Ed's gym clothes. If he set this fire, and he was wrong, Ed would not recover from even the slightest blast, and if he reduced his intensity, the imposter would have the upper hand. He would single handedly disable Ed for the rest of this mission.

"Ed." Roy cupped his hand beneath Ed's flesh knee and lifted Ed's leg a few inches. Ed hissed but let him do so looking worried. "Transmute me some bandages." _A fake Ed could not transmute._

"Out of what?" Ed whined.

This was not the response Roy was hoping for. "I don't care what." _How long could he push this issue._

Ed was holding the top of his flesh leg with both hands. "You do it," Ed whined, sounding angry. "I think I need stitches." If this was an imposter, it sounded impressively like Ed. "This is bullshit." Ed tipped his head downward toward his legs and exhaled a groaning breath. "Colonel," Ed whined. "I really think we need to regroup. This is no good."

Roy felt lost. He glanced about the hall twice but the other Ed had vanished. He was left only with this version casting doubt he couldn't overturn. _Unless he was a hundred percent certain he wasn't setting fire to this boy_. Did he dare call this Ed out, and demand proof by telling the boy he suspected him?

"This really hurts. I need you to help me colonel," Ed said, whimpering softly.

Ed's sentence repeated in Roy's head, and coming slowly, he realized Ed was not calling him by his first name. While he was the colonel he was also Roy, the same way Ed was also Fullmetal, and these words were interchangeable and held no real defining factors when in place. He was just as apt to call Ed by his first name while angry as he was to call him Fullmetal, and likewise for all other emotions. However, this did not seem to be true for Ed. Since they had arrived here, there seemed to be a turning point, of which and when he was not sure, that identified him as Roy when Ed was speaking with a level of sincerity the 'colonel' did not receive.

He was Roy when Ed was dropped off and picked up from a school Ed hated, he was Roy when Ed wanted a nightlight, he was Roy when Ed asked to sleep with him, he was Roy when Ed was crying and hanging onto his hand in the parking lot of the building, he was Roy in the living room before Imposter Hawkeye had appeared, and, he realized dumbly, that with Ed sitting in his gym clothes with his flesh leg bleeding to his ankle and the outlook grim, he should be Roy, and not the colonel. All at once, he realized the new dynamic which had blossomed between himself and Ed, however important, was so subtle it would be invisible to an observer and nearly impossible to imitate. _This Ed was the imposter._

"Fullmetal," Roy whispered.

"What?" Imposter Ed asked, lifting two tear filled and needy golden eyes.

Roy smiled. "You really had me fooled there for a moment," he said, connecting his thumb and middle finger within his glove. He was ready to start the fire, and Imposter Ed's eyes became angry before they widened with alarm because even Imposter Ed had noted his glove. It would only take one snap of his fingers, but before he could, and only milliseconds before he did, a flash of blue shot forward through the floor like a vein. Following it quickly came upward spikes stabbing the shinning hardwood into sharp points at a humanly unavoidable speed. They came quickly right toward Imposter Ed, and Roy pushed himself back just as the spike jutting upward directly in front of his face almost clipped his nose.

Roy fell back coughing, and Imposter Ed had been replaced by splintering cherry hardwood planks and a stalagmite made of the building's plaster.

"What the hell were you doing!" Ed yelled, appearing in the clearing dust without injury and in his gym clothes. "Waiting for him to plunge in the knife!"

Roy was still coughing when he came to realize which Ed was real and where the real Ed was located. The real Edward was standing angry and impatient in the clearing debris_, typical Fullmetal. _Struggling with his coughs Roy learned quickly Imposter Ed had simply skirted around him to avoid the attack when one skinny flesh arm looped about his neck from behind, and the familiar dagger edge of the automail jabbed him in the neck.

"Well look who it is!" Imposter Ed sang, keeping Roy tight in a headlock at knife point.

Ed was furious. "I almost threw up on myself watching that little show," Ed said angrily, and Roy decided he would never bring up the fact it appeared Ed was also blushing. As if something about the intimacy between the Imposter Ed and real Roy Mustang was embarrassing the shit out of the Fullmetal Alchemist as he sat waiting for his commanding officer to take the offense instead of wavering undecidedly in front of a whining bleeding version of himself.

"Oh, well look how easily it fooled the colonel!" Envy cheered, laughing overhead. Roy felt Imposter-Ed's body, which was flush to his back, laugh, and it sounded like Ed's laugh because it still spoke with Ed's voice.

"Take off my face!" Ed screamed, furious with the mocking double of himself.

"Don't you like what I've done?" Envy asked, smirking. "I've rather improved you," Envy said. Roy felt what Ed could see, and to him it was a quick and intense heat which flowed down Envy's right arm and left leg, but for Ed, he watched the automail morph quickly into the flesh limbs he'd lost. "And look at that," Envy said, voice thick with rude satisfaction. "All I have left now is this little knife," Envy gave his right, previously automail hand, a wiggle to emphasis the knife he had formed within it, "but it does look as though that's what he'd prefer."

Ed couldn't hide the sudden sting of these words, and Roy saw a quick almost unbelieving look of pain ghost across Ed's brow. It was the power of the insult combined with stunned sadness it was thrown. "Ed, ignore him," Roy said, using the harsh commanding tone he did in the office. Ed's eyes dropped to him with immediate obedience and Envy was annoyed.

"Shut your mouth Colonel," Envy snapped, sounding like a very pissed off Fullmetal. "And get to your feet, we've got someplace to go." Envy latched on, like a toddler trying to piggy back and Roy hesitated. He glanced to the right quickly, a blatant signal to Ed: _run_, but Ed didn't respond. _Insubordinate idiot! _Feeling alarmed with the odds of their fight and this knife in his jugular, Roy sent his glance again. The order was clear, but Ed was ignoring it. "I said get up," Envy snapped. Reluctantly Roy climbed to his feet with the thing snug to his back. "And pay close attention to what I do and say or I'll cut your throat wide open," Envy warned, before lifting a happy gaze to Ed. "You understand that Edward?" it asked. Ed was glaring with disgust. "So keep your clap-happy hands were I can see them." Envy thrust out his left flesh hand and pointed down the hall. "Third door on our left, go."

Ed glanced uneasily down the dark hallway, but didn't move. "What do you want Envy?" Ed asked.

"Did I say I was talking to you?" Envy snapped, pressing its feet downward into Roy's hips to push up and lean over Roy's shoulder in anger. "Shut that fat little mouth of yours and walk." Ed looked disgusted, but turned slowly and began walking down the hall. "Colonel, get your hands up here and hold my left arm." Ed glanced back with confusion when he heard this order, but Roy understood. Cautiously he lifted his hands and held what felt like Ed's tiny arm. "And keep them where I can see them," Envy said, giggling softly in Ed's body.

Roy saw Ed's shoulders stiffen with distaste for his own voice doing things he never would have done, so by the time they reached the door Envy wanted, Ed practically kicked it in.

"Temper, temper," Envy teased, ordering them into the black room. In the darkness Roy looked up to the windows overhead. The room was narrow, with an incredibly high ceiling which he estimated to be at least thirty feet. At what looked like twenty there were windows, so there was faint moonlight about the ceiling casting odd shadows and outlining what appeared to be beams and large dark shapes. "Hit the lights Fullmetal," Envy ordered, sounding annoyed with their lack of action in a dark room.

Ed stepped to the wall and felt around before finding the switch. Hanging florescent lights kicked in illuminating what Roy had to assume was shop class. On their level there were long work benches, large pieces of machinery and wood working and metal tools. At first he assumed it was a shop class for wood working, but quickly he realized this class was more advanced. There were many different wrenches, pliers, clippers, socket and ratchet sets, wire strippers, a fat bearing puller, flat sheets of metal, large wedges, and several intimidating metal bandsaws on some of the tables. There was a welding section, and cables for power, and chains for leverage hanging down in some areas. It appeared the room was narrow so that supplies, or large items could be moved from the right side of the room to the workstations about the left. His first instinct was a bit of shock the school would offer a trade as simple as mechanics, _would you really pay so much to study cars?, _but the large engine pieces were quickly moving his deduction to a form of engineering. The school offered mechanical engineering, and it seemed this was where the hands on training was done.

Roy looked quickly to Ed. _Why wouldn't Ed have put up more of a fight before entering this room! _Ed was sweeping the room with a cautious intimidated gaze, and Roy realized immediately that Ed was not aware this room existed, and certainly didn't know it was here. This place was dangerous for Fullmetal, and Ed responded instinctively by lifting his hands the slightest bit for alchemy before stopping himself.

Envy was hoping and expecting such a response and it broke out wiggling with excitement because the room was for Ed what a blood caked surgical table of scalpels and syringes was for any person.

"Isn't this a cool room?" Envy asked, laughing. Ed shot the thing a dark look, but wasn't able to hide all of his trepidation. "Bet you didn't know this was here!" Envy's laughter was growing. "I should have walked in first so I could have seen your face!" Roy didn't understand where this conversation was going. _Were there other Homunculi here? Was this thing waiting for its partners? Or were they really in danger of it toying with them._ "I didn't think I was going to get you both in here." Roy shared a glance with the thing laughing over his shoulder. He was disgusted with this child sized animal using him as a jungle gym, and overly disgusted with the sound and feeling of it in Ed's body. The sensation of the tiny hands hanging onto him, in the same way Ed had hung onto him in the past, made him shiver. "But you were so worried about him!" Envy said, speaking to Roy only and pointing toward a work bench. "You actually dropped your guard entirely!" Ed looked to Roy with confusion and Roy heard Ed's thought at once. _Tell me you didn't!_ Roy wasn't going to admit or deny that's what he had done. "All I had to do was give myself a few little cuts, and this murdering Colonel turns into a doting father!"

"What the hell do you want!" Ed snapped, wanting these comments to end. "We were in the middle of something Envy!"

"Oh, I know." Envy got his laughter under control quickly and pointed again toward the workbench. "See that engineer's metal bench vice over there Fullmetal? Go put your hand in it."

Roy felt immediate panic spark with this order. Ed looked over to the workbench before back at Envy and Roy shot Ed his second order. He gave a quick eye flare and glanced to the door. _Get out of here now._

"I can't," Ed said angrily, speaking to Roy.

"Oh, yes you can," Envy said, oblivious to the additional communication in the room. "Now do it." Envy's voice was a hard nasally cruel sound inside Ed's voice, but the thing sounded confident, and almost patient. It did not fear them, and this lack of fear in its voice was heating a fury inside Roy he had not felt in a long time. _He would give this thing a reason to fear the Flame Alchemist._

"Where is Lieutenant Hawkeye?" Ed asked angrily, but Envy would have none of this.

"Shut up!" Envy screamed, and directly after Roy felt a hot and very real pain appear in his neck. Envy pushed the knife in enough to cut painfully but not dangerously and drew it back an inch. Ed's expression darkened with the incision. "Now do as I say or I'll give you two colonels and neither of them will be whole," Envy said, voice thick with anger before recovering to eager snickers.

Ed stood with an expression of hideous deep loathing before turning and walking calmly to the vice. Gracelessly Ed karate chopped his hand in-between the vice's jaws and slapped the screw so it spun rapidly and tightened to clamp his hand in place.

Envy grew a dark smile before snickering to itself. Ed's rebellion was not going unnoticed. "He's really something, isn't he?" Envy teased, giving Roy a poke with his flesh finger. Roy refused to answer. "I am going to take off part of your automail boy," Envy said, lifting all but his thumb and pointer finger from the knife still pricking Roy's neck. This made the knife more visible and Envy cocked his head in a sarcastic universal signal which questioned, _you get my drift?_

"Take it off then," Ed said, managing an indifferent, and if anything, an angry tone.

"You're going to let me do it," Envy clarified, completely unconvinced with Ed's passive cooperation. "And Colonel if I get any problems from you, I am going to put this knife in someone else." Envy lifted his hand and pet it through Roy's hair. It was an odd sensation because the stroke was one of affection, and something Roy only associated with women. In bed, they had a tendency to grab your hair, and if you were good, your entire head. This hand was small, the palm not enough to manage a pet covering even just the top of his head, and Ed looked disturbed this was happening. "What's the matter Fullmetal?" Envy asked, feigning ignorance. The stroking continued and Roy shuttered when Envy's hand came forward and the tiny fingers pet his forehead as well. "See something you don't like?" Ed was furious. "Want to say something?" Envy asked, enjoying himself.

"If you're going to take it off, just take it off!" Ed snapped.

Envy lifted an eyebrow before laying his cheek against Roy's. "The colonel was just so friendly," Envy taunted, still toying with the visual of Ed's body as its form. "Who could leave?" Envy turned and planted a soft kiss on Roy's cheek and Ed threw a fit.

"You freaking asshole!" Ed slapped the vice's screw and it gave another three turns. "There!" Ed cried, stepping back and tugging on his arm to prove the grip. "Stop your stupid games!"

Envy looked up when Ed tightened his hand, but Roy was stiff with the sensation of a false Ed so close to his face. The kiss was unwelcomed and repulsive because it was made to feel gentle and kind.

"Kiss him with my body one more time and I'll kick your teeth in!" Ed screamed, standing at an arms length from the vice.

Envy broke out laughing and, faster than Roy could understand, it hopped off him and started a quick happy walk to Ed's workbench. Roy felt abandoned with Envy's weight suddenly lifted, and the thing's back to him. Immediately he raised his hand, but the thing new that was what he was going to do.

"I wouldn't do that colonel," Envy said, stepping the slightest bit to the side so Ed was only inches from the target blast. "Can you hit me and not hit him?" it asked, hopping onto the work bench and standing alongside the vice. "I doubt he heals as fast as I do." Envy said, dropping his hands to his hips. Roy stalled, because although he had the talent to cast something small enough to keep Ed safe, the damage would be so insignificant it almost wasn't worth it. Anything which could even be considered an attack would either hit Ed with flames or enough heat to burn him.

Roy looked to Ed for his thoughts, but Ed was staring at the two flesh legs his imposter body was standing on as if one were made of gold.

"Don't disobey me again," Envy said, voice nasty with hate, before suddenly it moved. Its body seemed to duck, almost as if it were a picture, and blinked once quickly in and out of existence. That single blink represented it moving and returning so quickly the rest of its action was lost, and had it done nothing other than move, Roy never would have been certain of what he saw. However, directly after the blink Envy began the quick uncharacteristic chuckle it had been entertaining in Ed's replicated body, and Ed dropped to his knees as if he'd been hit over the head.

"Do you know how fast I am!" Envy yelled, sounding thrilled. Suddenly it had a screw driver in its hand, and it pointed it forward at Roy in declaration. "Do you see how fast!" Ed was frantically rubbing the reddening right side of his face. It seemed Envy moved fast enough it kicked the boy and retrieved a screwdriver before Roy could be certain it had left the spot it was standing in. "Now if you move again, I am going to plunge this into his eye." Envy held up the screwdriver smiling. "And you won't be able to see it, and you wont' be able to stop me." Roy was horrified. "He doesn't need two eyes, and I don't think he'll bleed enough it will kill him. I'll be careful not to do anything more than stick it the way you would a grape." Ed was climbing to his feet, and looked thoroughly disgusted with Envy reigning over him like a king.

Envy dropped to a crouch in front of Ed's vice and stuck the screwdriver into the large screw Roy had seen at the base of Ed's thumb. All at once the creature seemed done talking and was working diligently with Ed watching. Roy envisioned crosshairs in his view, but the creature was right, it was so close to Ed there was little he could do. Even if he aimed for something near the creature, Ed was stationary with the table, and he risked setting the environment on fire where Ed might be stuck.

"See him over there," Envy said softly, speaking to Ed. "Thinking of how to shoot me without shooting you." Ed glanced over to Roy and they shared a knowing look. _They were both technically grounded for the moment._ "That's how he murdered the Ishvallans." Part of Ed's thumb and pointer finger came loose and dropped into limp immobile appendages of the core hand. "With that type of precision."

Roy felt vehement fury explode inside him, and suddenly the idea of Ed standing in a burning environment seemed less dangerous. _The Fullmetal Alchemist would think of something to get out_. He'd set the entire table of fire, and burn it near 1400 degrees Celsius!

Ed glanced at Roy with Envy's Ishvallan comment. He wasn't expecting it. It was unclear what Envy was doing or why, and who was the target. For the moment Envy was not taking great offensive action and was using them against each other only to gain compliance. Referencing the Ishvallan war was as bad as making flesh limbs that didn't exist, and Ed saw Roy's face bleed over with something he was temped to describe as a frenzy of rage. It was a frightening look, and he'd never seen it before. It made him want to move out of what he knew was the blast radius of Roy's aim, and also, he wished Hawkeye was there.

Roy saw himself in the lobby where he had been waiting, and all around him was nothing but roaring fire.

* * *

Thus concludes chapter 10 ~ I hope you liked it!

Please leave me a review! _What was your favorite part? How did you like Envy's first appearance? Did this chapter's fake Hawkeye fool you at first, and did the fake Ed? _Writing Mustang teetering between sparking fire to what was possibly imposter Ed was stressful. I couldn't imagine being in that situation, you'd have to be beyond sure, or imagine the mistake.

Quick shout out - Thank you all _SO_ much for the incredibly kind comments to Chapter 9! I get so excited when you point out select parts or dialogue you liked. It's the gift of understanding how it was for you the reader, combined with the sensation I remember from writing it.

The finale, Chapter 11: _Combat Vector_ _Field,_ will be posted next Friday 11/2/12. Deliberately I was kind, no cliff hangers, it's a 28 page read. Hope you enjoy : )

Also I have decided my next post! 11/17/12 – FMA: One shot: _Office Conduct. _At the end of this story I will release dates and titles to my upcoming stories. To any of you who would like to read, I'd like to tell you when you can, and of course, this helps me stay organized as well, lol. I will also add this information to my profile, and, obviously, appreciate any access to your prestigious Author Alert lists.

Thanks everyone!


	11. Combat Vector Field

Another Run of Events  
Chapter Eleven  
_Combat Vector Field_

- mirage -

"You're doing it wrong," Ed said, raising his voice in hopes he would break the tension he felt mounting dangerously. Envy was turning screw after screw, but with this comment the screw driver stopped, and the thing looked up with a bit of surprise. "You're doing it the slow way," Ed said, managing a snotty tone. "Because you're an _idiot_." Envy seethed and snatched the front of Ed's shirt yanking him flush to the table. "Get off!" Ed yelled, shoving at what looked like his own chest, before spitting. With one arm locked to the table there wasn't much to do and he hocked a loogie and shot it into Envy's eye in defense.

"Ah!" Envy jerked back with disgust and wiped at his eye. "That's disgusting!"

"I'll do it myself!" Ed grabbed the discarded screwdriver and began frantically disassembling his own hand. Even if he only had one after this, it was better then being connected to a workbench!

Envy was disgusted with Ed's ability to function in a situation he thought would have crippled the boy. He watched the screws drop from Ed's hand with growing hate. It was clear that Ed was nervous with his arm locked to the table, that the room itself made him anxious, but Ed was focusing through it, and when the last screw disconnected the metal hand dropped like a dead fish and left a stump in its place.

"You're taking this well shrimp," Envy said, trying his best to whittle away at the discipline Ed was holding himself to. It was not as firm as Ed would have liked, and even this comment made the boy bristle, but removing Ed's hand was not having the effect Envy had hoped for. Envy had intended to emphasis the handicap and force the disability into Ed's face so the boy would mentally weaken himself, but instead Ed only seemed angry. Roy knew he was the only one in the room who could see Ed's level of comfort dwindling. Since Ed had been secured to the table he had grown quieter and was sweating lightly.

"There," Ed said, throwing the screwdriver from the workbench before grabbed his own hand and throwing it at Envy. "Think this is enough to bother me!" Ed was furious, and Roy could see Ed's growing nervousness becoming a rabid desire to attack like a bees nest being shaken. You could only disorient the bees for so long, and Roy felt like Ed was going to come swarming from his self restraint as soon as he found means to do so. "I'll beat your pathetic face in!" Ed grabbed at the vice and forced the handle down to free his arm. "I'll beat you into the ground!"

Envy stood up snarling and took a step back to lunge at Ed. That step looked to be about twenty five inches, and with the additional space horizontally, and approximately 39 inches vertically, Roy shot a stream of burning fire forward with the intent of catching the thing's shoulders and head.

Ed dropped to his knees and covered his head with his single arm unable to tell how high the flames were above him. Roy fired for only a few seconds, long enough for the fire to hit the other side of the room and singe some of the metal equipment and leave a few things smoldering, but as soon as he was certain the creature had moved he stopped.

"Get yourself free!" Roy ordered. Ed looked to the far side of the room where the fire had hit with disbelieve it wasn't burning before pawing at the vice to release himself.

Seconds after the fire stopped the Homunculus abandoned its full Edward-flesh body and returned to a thin and slender self wearing a black ensemble with hair like a spider plant. "You act quickly," Envy congratulated Roy. "And look how angry Fullmetal is." Envy laughed to himself. "He's still going, with one hand down, and we're still moving! Don't you just love him!"

Ed ripped his arm free of the vice panting. He turned around to look at the creature which was standing along the fall wall in front of a tool board of ratchet sets and screwdrivers. "This is Envy's popular form Roy," Ed said, gesturing to the creature's new design. "Take a good look." Roy was fascinated with the intense change from Edward's grade school body to what seemed to be the taller frame of an older adolescent.

Envy was unmoved with this comment and looked at the automail stump hanging off Ed's side. It was awkward now, the loss of the hand turned the impressive arm into a useless piece of metal which looked almost frightening.

"That looks truly hideous Edward," Envy said, glaring at the arm with disgust. Ed looked down at his arm with discouraged acknowledgement and flexed it once before letting the stump hang from his side with a heavy sigh.

"Roy, what are you waiting for," Ed said angrily, returning his gaze to Envy. "Blast him!"

Roy didn't answer this. Like the screwdriver, Envy had acquired what looked like a fat remote in the move from the workbench and began fiddling with it. The creature was ignoring them for the moment, and this would be a perfect time to attack had it not stopped directly in front of a shelf of solvents Roy recognized as incredibly flammable.

"Roy!" Ed snapped, looking over with a wild hand gesture meant to motivate Mustang. Roy didn't want to verbalize why he was stalling because that meant informing the creature he couldn't attack that portion of the room. He wasn't ready to release such an explosion with them so close and with Ed having only one arm. He gave Ed a stern glance. In the adult world this glance was an alpha command, a clear and simple _I know something you don't, so let me lead_, but to children, this was the obstinate look of an adult disagreeing. Frantically Roy tried to think of a sign he could give which Ed would understand. He had to analyze the situation here, he had to analyze the field of combat. Their terrain was foreign and did not look safe, there were chemicals, sharp items, and dangerous tools and resources in this room which implied they should not go sending them into the air, setting them fire, or work around them haphazardly without some type of plan.

There was also the pending notion of backup. Havoc was also in this building, and Fuery was somewhere. Being so short staffed, Roy was reluctant to start an out and out war, let alone and out and out explosion, with just him and Ed. The creature had proven to at least be simple minded in the fact it acted confident only when it seemed to, or did, have the upper hand, so watching it stand calmly, slapping the side of a remote it couldn't seem to work, told Roy he needed to know more about what he was doing since he could not release large bursts of flame.

"You're looking rather confident colonel," Envy said, stealing their attention. "Back up," Envy said, and Roy was confused with the tone because it sounded like advice and not like an order. Envy lifted the remote slightly and pointed it toward the ceiling. "I admit I have no idea how this works." Roy glanced around trying to find a piece of equipment which indicated it matched the remote. With such close quarters combat, generous collection of metal scraps, and large pieces of machinery he felt at a loss as to which one this could be, or why holding this made the thing so giddy. _Was the remote going to activate something near them?_

Ed was not as patient. "What the hell is that!" Ed demanded. Envy ignored this and smacked the remote down on the near by work bench before giving it a shake like he was trying to find the prize inside. "Fine!" Ed said, bringing the stump of metal to his other palm. "Taking my hand didn't do a thing!" Ed let loose a row of spikes and Envy broke out laughing and shot to the right.

"Ed, dammit!" Roy yelled, when he watched the concrete of the floor collide with the wall inches from the solvents. "Be careful!"

"Feel like earning your paycheck and backing me up!" Ed yelled, running after Envy. Ed clapped and threw his hands against the workbench along side of him and flipped it up. The metal tools on top fell to the floor and the top portion of the table separated into spears and fired forward. Envy ran dodging them all before grabbing a five gallon bucket of shellac paint and tossing it forward. Roy was doing what he could to keep fire from the mix, but he saw the creature's intent and sent out flames. Shellac was flammable, and it was flying toward Ed and would cover the boy on impact making it harder for them to use fire with Ed running around like a gasoline soaked rag.

Roy's flames hit and the bit exploded outward in a violent ball of fire. As fast as the content could burn the ball was shrinking, and Ed ran from it as it sent comet sized lumps flying in the boy's direction. Burning bits of it splattered to the floor setting flammable parts of the destroyed tool bench on fire and Ed kicked a piece with the automail and sent it back Envy's way. "Try not to take me out Roy!"

"Ed, half of everything in here is flammable!" Roy yelled, unable to bite his tongue any longer. _Ed just wasn't getting that!_

"So aim!" Ed yelled, sending more spikes across the room. They hit the far wall and smashed the windows out and destroyed every workbench in the way.

Envy cheered when the glass above them came down like rain. "Careful Fullmetal Alchemist!" Envy laughed. Roy was back far enough the glass was only bouncing about his ankles, and Ed had used his metal arm to shield most of him before ducking under a workbench for cover. "You're making so much noise all your backup will arrive and we won't have any fun!" Ed scrambled out from under the table and the sound of the glass crunching under his sneakers made it sound like he were walking on snow. "That nice lady the First Lieutenant was here. You should give her a gold star colonel, she figured me out first."

Roy felt his rage return, and he curled his hand into a fist. Envy was standing along side a tank of compressed oxygen, and he couldn't fire.

"Did you hurt her?" Ed asked, sounding worried. Envy shrugged and pinched a toggle switch on the remote. Flicking it repeatedly he looked upward for a reaction. "She doesn't have anything to do with you and me Envy."

"She's fine," Envy said casually. "She'll recover." Roy didn't know how to take that answer, but he wasn't willing to ask questions the way Ed did. He didn't trust what the enemy reported to him, and he knew it would work against him if he lost his head. "You know I really only waited around here to see you Ed, and I will admit that." Envy broke a wide grin. It was too large for a human face, and swept from side to side with too much teeth and too much gum. "I imagine we came for the same purpose. To find out what was happening, right?"

"Are you making the substance?" Ed asked, far too engaged for Roy's comfort. Ed was speaking with the enemy as if there were more than just a chance it wouldn't lie to them. Ed was having conversation as if it may in fact tell the truth, and if it didn't, they would be able to tell it wasn't. On the battlefield this is what soldiers referred to as, letting the enemy get inside your head. Instead of establishing that everything the enemy said was lies, you were filtering through, and the uncertainty this could develop was dangerous.

"Ed, leave it alone," Roy warned. Ed glanced quickly to Roy with surprise, but Envy ignored this.

"It's a basic transmutation and it's done with a circle and everything," Envy said, reporting as if this were old news. "One transmutation to destroy and one transmutation which is activated upon completion of the first to generate the salt material we all discovered through a combination of the rubble being dismantled and one or two hard to decipher added ingredients."

"What type of added ingredients?" Ed asked, captivated with this idea. Roy too, was shocked the enemy was giving them what sounded like an accurate report.

Envy shrugged. "It's different every time, and it's not hard to figure out. You would have done it if they had attacked while you've all been out here camping." Ed frowned with annoyance. If this was the truth it meant Envy was an inconvenience and nothing more. "Or if you weren't preoccupied with other things, like growing," Envy teased. Ed snarled, and Roy glanced cautiously toward the boy. _Now was not the time to be taken with short jokes! _"Okay, so now I have to ask Fullmetal," Envy said, adopting a bit more excitement in tone. Roy felt the conversation shifting. "Which is more conductive, your arm or your leg?"

"If you knew there was no new substance out here, then why stay?" Ed asked, sounding angry. "What for? There isn't anything here for you. It's a waste of your time!"

Envy smiled, holding the remote slightly extended with his finger resting on a large green button. "Isn't it obvious! I stayed out here to see what you humans were going to do!" Envy broke out laughing.

"That's such crap!" Ed yelled, stepping forward aggressively.

"No, really!" Envy insisted, continuing to laugh. "I mean, why not?" Envy gave another shrug. "It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed myself." Envy gave them both a wink, and Roy felt himself desire to step back. The creature was growing giddy the way it did with the blade of a knife in his neck. Discretely he looked around for impending danger, but he couldn't see any. "You don't think I stayed on the side lines do you?" Envy asked, tapping the button lightly with his finger. "Oh no, Fullmetal. I joined in." Envy lifted the remote and showed it to them both with a wide grin. "I've figured this out by the way," Envy said, before returning it to a casual grasp and laying his finger back over the green button. "I had the pleasure of crossing paths with each and every one of you as you worked, you just didn't know it! I was all over the place, impersonating all sorts of schmucks in this town! And I must say Fullmetal, I _really_ enjoyed spanking your cocky ass to tears."

Ed jerked with these words as if they held an electrical current and shook him. Roy felt the impact as well, and it was something intense and appalling. He was more bothered with the notion this thing had been impersonating individuals without detection, and actually had manipulated them, more specifically to humiliate Ed in such an abusive way, then he was with the notion their preliminary scouts could not determine the order of transmutations which caused this entire investigation. There was just something creepy and alarming about a shape shifting enemy with the patience to lure Fullmetal into a situation where it could force him to mentally and physically surrender, even if only for a moment, and even if it required the boy to remain unaware. Roy looked quickly to Ed with concern, because he wanted a very real and very permanent separation between Ed and this thing, but Ed went berserk with Envy's confession.

"You son of a bitch!" Ed screamed, charging forward full speed with rage.

"Ed stop!" Roy yelled, rushing after the boy.

Ed ran to Envy and threw his broken automail forward to impale the creature, but Envy ducked and jumped almost too ridiculously fast to see. It was agile beyond belief and propelled itself at least seven feet into the air where the room's construction provided nothing abnormally flammable. Roy didn't need another chance. He sent fire after the thing in shots the size of beach balls. He made them intensely hot and hallow so on impact the pop would spread the flames upward and downward on the thing's body. Envy was fast, missing them by a hair so round bouts of flame hit the back wall.

"Out of the way Ed!" Roy yelled, sending the fire balls forward. Ed jumped back, catching one with his automail leg and from the knee down several inches of the metal turned red with heat but didn't melt.

"Way to warn me!" Ed yelled running for cover, and fanning at the metal which would be sensitive while in a malleable temperature.

Envy ran to a thin tank of oil and stood on the top grinning. "You really are the Flame Alchemist!" It cheered, and then all at once it was in Roy's face and up against him. Roy felt his breath catch, and he heard Ed whirl around when Envy seemed to suddenly disappear. "That was impressive," Envy said kindly. Ed was yelling obscenities but Envy wasn't listening. Roy felt the blade against his neck and knew it felt confident once again because Ed was unwilling to attack them both. "Unfortunately, I need to restrain your hands after that little stunt." Envy was standing in front of him, and it gave a shove forcing him to take a step back in order to absorb it. He would have sworn it had grown taller, and wondered briefly if it had done so simply so it could stand on its own two feet and look him in the eye.

Envy backed them into the wall and smiled the smile of someone on top. "I know what you're thinking," it said softly, too low for Ed to hear. Roy could literally feel Ed's building anxiety with their private conversation. "You think help is coming." This was true. "You think your blonde smoking Lieutenant is coming, or that the woman is coming." He hoped to god Hawkeye was coming. "You're thinking, the Fullmetal Alchemist can take me, and your position is not as precarious as it is." Envy's hand slid over Roy's ammunition glove and tugged gently at the finger tips until it slid off and fluttered to the floor. Roy cooperated, he did believe Ed could hold his own, and he did believe that he was capable of beating this thing even with the steps it was taking. "Funny thing about you humans is you often don't understand your positions even when you're in them." Envy led Roy's hands up one at a time and fastened them to a thin copper pipe which ran along most of the wall using bits of twin which were hanging from it. The area where they stood was covered with a special paint splattered mat. It was easy to understand things were often hung here and painted, or hung here to dry.

While Envy spoke Ed quietly crossed the room until he was a few feet away and carving a transmutation circle into his automail with a scrap of metal. Ed was getting ready. Roy wasn't certain for what, but in his peripheral he could see Ed readying his stance and raising his arm, and he couldn't take it. He felt since they had been discovered, he was first a means for transportation to the group, then a bystander while it targeted Ed, and now again he was being moved out of the way. _He was not the target_. The message was clear: Ed was the target. Knowing the creature would understand what he was doing, he turned his eyes to Ed and again told the boy through his eyes to leave. Ed shook his head, holding his metal arm outward like a sword.

"God dammit," Roy said angrily. He understood he now looked like a hostage, but that was not what he felt like, and he had been a hostage before. "You obey my orders," he said, placing as much threat into his eyes as he could.

"Remember what I said about possibly not obeying your orders Colonel?" Ed asked, sounding a bit nervous. Roy was using his angry-colonel tone, but Ed looked worried with Roy's restrains, and unwilling to abandon him in order to leave.

Envy did not take long to tie knots, and as soon as it was done it moved its thumb to the green button on the remote it held and pressed it. Immediately something in the room began a low mechanical hum, and Roy glanced around with uncertainty before he felt his belt buckle move. _His metal belt buckle._

"Ed!" Roy snapped, turning vicious eyes to the boy. "Get out of here right now!" Ed looked flabbergasted with this order. "Right now!"

"I can't!" Ed cried, looking concerned he was being forced to be so insubordinate.

"Oh no, he's right, you should," Envy said, turning around to face Ed with a wide smile. Down the front of the remote were two rows of buttons. The first started with the large green one which was now lit, and under it were several smaller ones Envy began pressing. "One, two, three, green, green, green," Envy said, happily punching them in. "Three buttons is not so strong." Ed was watching this looking clueless. "Four, five."

"Ed!" Roy was furious. "I order you to retreat!" Ed sent worried eyes toward Roy growing panicked. Ed couldn't act on this order because in his youth he didn't understand it. He didn't understand how in war you ordered people away for the good of the mission, or to save themselves. Ed only understood his own childish version of nobility, and that did not fit on the battlefield. "You're not leaving me, dammit!" Roy yelled, with Envy giggling and working the remote as fast as he could. "I just need you to retreat! It's a magnet Fullmetal! _A magnet!_"

Ed's eyes widened with immediate horror. "Envy!" Ed yelled, looking around wildly for whatever magnet Roy thought put him in danger. Ed ran to the nearest bolted workstation and grabbed onto the leg. "Where is it!" Ed asked, scanning the heavily stocked, and now chaotically destroyed room.

"Not down here honey," Envy said, snickering and unable to contain his pleasure even as he spoke. Ed looked to Envy with an expression of true rage and true fear, but Envy was simply bobbing his hand in an upward point. "Up there!"

Ed looked up and directly overhead hung a large circular magnet with the diameter of a small pool or trampoline. Roy was startled with the mass of it, and alarmed with the weight he imagined it had and the fact it was hanging over there heads while they blew up parts of the room and possibly whatever was holding it there. Thirty feet up it looked like a large black moon, and he envisioned it sucking up a car.

Ed was staring upward in terrified shock as Envy lit up the buttons beneath the large green one until the metal scraps began wobbling and then suddenly they were sucked upward and collected about the bottom of it in violent clanks and groans.

Envy made a face of disagreement. "Darn, I didn't want those there." Envy turned off a few buttons and the scraps dropped to the floor and showered Ed who dove under the workbench he was hanging onto for cover. The minute the magnet reduced in strength Ed was up and charging at Envy. "What are you doing!" Envy laughed, hitting the buttons and Ed, who was running at them, began slowing until he was sliding backward to the pull of an unseen force.

"Envy!" Ed yelled, forcing his automail forward and in a slow lift as if to bring it down like a hammer. "I am going to pound your face in!"

"With what arm?" Envy laughed.

Roy was horrified with the sight of Ed nearly stationary and struggling to keep his arm lowered when it wanted to pull above his head.

"Now Fullmetal, did you help make the transmutation that covers itself with a second reaction?" Envy asked, sounding almost thoughtful. Ed was struggling with his arm. Roy could see heavy strain breaking out about Ed's forehead in light perspiration as his face turned read. It took Envy a moment to understand Ed was too preoccupied to answer, and he reduce the magnet. Ed dropped to his knees panting when his arm sunk down and hung off him as if it had been over stretched. "Did you?" Envy asked. "Can you take credit for that?"

"…Maybe," Ed said, panting. Ed grabbed his automail shoulder and continued catching his breath. "You think I did it?" Ed asked, before breaking a fast smile. "You thought I did?" Envy's face darkened when Ed chuckled. "Thought you'd been out smarted again, did you?" Ed rolled his metal shoulder before resting his hands on his knees and pushing himself to his feet.

"When I got here, you guys were already here," Envy said, sounding mildly annoyed. "And it's a little hard to imagine you were really all fooled and couldn't see that someone was simply ransacking your pathetic base. You've been out here for two weeks!"

"After us, huh?" Ed asked, wiping his mouth with his flesh hand. "How long did it take you to figure this all out then?" Ed asked. Envy snarled. "Were you worried?" Ed asked smugly. "That us humans made something that you didn't know about? A chemical you didn't know about?" Roy could see Envy's agitation rising and he looked up at his hands. The twine was tied tight, so wiggling free would not be discrete. With Ed talking, and Envy's information the situation was coming together and Roy now understood their insignificant base was targeted because it was insignificant, and this was nothing more than a burglar's research. The combination of two transmutations with a product meant to disguise the alchemy while simultaneously dissolving evidence and fingerprints. They had been lured the same way this thing had, and while they had not yet been able to find their enemy, he imagined to this Homunculus, it must have looked largely like they were the ones orchestrating all this with their constant surveillance, and their own attacks on the base. However, it wouldn't have been able to believe this for long. While it might have assumed the Fullmetal Alchemist, who appeared to be strutting around, was the creator, a few run-ins with Ed would have revealed differently.

"No one knows it wasn't you tiny Alchemist, so I can still take out all of my anger on you," Envy sneered.

Ed ignored this, and Roy wasn't certain how much of this Ed was putting together while still engaged in conversation.

"I bet it hurt that corpse you call a body when you touched it," Ed said, tipping his head down and smiling at the creature who stood enraged with the remote. "Just like salt thrown onto a slug."

Envy slammed his fist down on the remote with anger and the pad lit up under his hand. The magnet responded instantly, and for a moment Ed's angry expression disappeared for a wide eyed look of panic before he was gone. The automail jerked over his head almost too fast for them to see and sucked Ed right to the magnet.

"Fullmetal!" Roy screamed, in absolute shock. Ed had been ripped off his feet and the automail was hungrily flush to the magnet with Ed dangling thirty feet up like a rag doll. Even from the floor the metal arm could be seen stretched outward in a gray line before Ed's head was bent painfully to the side as the shoulder socket was hugged to the metal. The angle of Ed's neck was so extreme Roy felt his mouth dry up and he stared for a long moment in perpetual fear just the impact of the magnet to the automail could have broken Ed's neck.

Envy also seemed surprised with the power of the magnet and stared up in fascination. After Ed disappeared a long pause of silence swept the room until Envy spoke. "That doesn't look good," Envy said, walking forward to stand beneath Ed's swaying body. The thing lifted its hand and thoughtfully drummed its fingers to its chin. "Are you conscious up there Fullmetal!" Envy called.

Roy felt the stun of his emotions giving way to rage and he threw a furious glare toward the half dressed boy. "Are you trying to kill him!" he screamed, yanking downward on his wrists.

Envy looked over with a gaze of slightly railroaded disinterest. "Well," it said calmly, before looking back up. "No, not exactly."

The phone on the back wall began to ring, and Envy went to it with his eyes trained on Ed as if any moment Ed might do something when instead he looked unconscious.

Roy ripped downward on his wrists with an urge to kill boiling up from inside his stomach and flushing his limbs with heat. It was an enveloping emotion of uncontrollable insurmountable proportion and his head felt as if it were ringing when he stretched up to his wrists and bit the twine to chew his way free.

Envy picked up the phone slowly. "Hello?" The things eyes didn't leave the magnet for a good minute. Then Envy turned his attention to the remote as if there were a button to reactivate Fullmetal. "No, he's here with me." Envy turned off two buttons and looked up for the magnet's response but nothing happened. "He's still alive. The brother doesn't seem to be here either, but who cares. It's no fun to play with a suit of armor." Two more buttons were turned off and Ed's shoulder let loose and dropped the boy a foot from the magnet. Ed's elbow was hanging on strong, and the sudden detachment scared ice into Roy's veins. _If Ed fell while unconscious he wouldn't even try to save himself and the fall would be fatal!_

"Stop turning it off!" Roy screamed.

Envy glanced over to Roy with the phone talking in his ear. "Can you hold for a second?" Envy asked the line, before sitting the phone down and cupping a hand around his mouth. "Hey Fullmetal!"

"If you weren't trying to kill him, what the hell were you trying to accomplish!" Roy yelled, struggling with his restrains. "If you weren't trying to kill him, how could you be so careless!"

Envy picked up the phone ignoring this. "Am I going to be in any trouble if I accidentally killed him?" Envy asked. "And I didn't set the house on fire either, they did that themselves."

Roy felt himself loose control. The heat inside his body was becoming flames all about the back of his neck and he knew what it was at once. It was wrath. A hot and blinding rage he had not felt in years. It gripped him like a seizure and he braced his body and yanked downward on his arms with such sudden strength and intensity, Envy lowered the phone from his ear with a look of confusion.

"Colonel, I don't want any trouble from you," Envy said angrily.

Roy felt like telling the thing he was going to kick its ass up and down this room when he was free, but his body was in such strain he couldn't speak. The phone line was telling the Homunculus it was time to leave, and Envy was arguing it had not had enough time to play. As if tormenting the students in this school was fun. As if running amok and wasting their military time and money was a game. As if torturing a young boy with the vision of what he didn't have, and threatening his well being was a god damn joke. Roy was just about to start swearing viciously and in way he had not done since he was twenty six and would have one too many beers, when he saw her.

In the far right corner of the room, along side what looked to be a large hanger door capable of opening and closing, was a thin entrance door with an even thinner window slot at eye level. The narrow slit of glass provided barely any light to the previously darkened room and had not been noticeable. In fact, Roy imagined he never would have noticed it if it were not for the sudden movement inside it, and if that sudden movement had not been a familiar pair of feminine eyes.

From in-between what could be no more than three inches, Hawkeye appeared as a worried gaze, a few strands of blonde bangs, and a gun. Roy physically choked on sight of her. _Hawkeye!_

Her eyes met his almost instantly. Somehow, she knew where he was. Without a glance to the entire room she looked right at him as if the connection, which was born on the battlefield years ago, pulled them together like opposite ends of a battery. She found him even before she found the enemy, and he was determined to tell her all she needed to know.

Hawkeye's eyes flashed with relief when she saw him, but Roy's tightened into a ferocious gaze and he threw it toward the Homunculus with everything he needed her to understand written across his face. He was certain she would see it, and he was thrilled she would act on it. He looked at that thing talking on the phone with only one thought. _SHOOT. Shoot to kill. KILL. KILL. Shoot to KILL! _

He wanted it dead, and Hawkeye followed his gaze and disappeared from the window. Seconds later her bullets flew threw it. The first hit the thing in the arm, the second blew the phone into pieces, and the third hit the wall when it moved.

Envy tore away from the door, but it didn't stop her. She fired at the doorknob and kicked the door in. With a small laugh Envy looked back to the Flame Alchemist tied to the wall and offered the same playful solute Tommy had given Havoc. "It's been a pleasure Colonel." Hawkeye started shooting before it finished speaking, and a slug hit the wall inches from Roy's left ear. It splattered sheet rock onto his smile, because he felt safe with her bullets.

Envy was on the move. He deliberately threw the magnet's remote at the ground so it smashed, and went running for the exit.

Roy yelled the only order ringing through his head. "Kill him!"

Hawkeye was firing rapidly, and her bullets sprayed up the side of the wall and across the closed door as Envy bounded and jumped his way there before diving into the hall.

"Sir!" Hawkeye called, running to Roy while reloading.

"_Go after him!_" he ordered fiercely. She was startled with his venomous tone, but only for a minute. Then she slapped a new cartridge in and took into the hall. "Get him!" Roy yelled, craning his head toward the door while pulling on his wrists. "Kill him!" He yanked down with all his might, until he felt his spine pulling painfully and his wrists started to bleed. "Fullmetal!" he yelled loudly, dropping his weight to hang from his arms and using his legs to push himself forward. "Fullmetal!" With no luck he grabbed the pipe and curled himself up so he could press his feet against it and kicked. If he could weaken it he could bend it forward, but the pipe seemed rooted in tight. It seemed nothing would budge, either the twine or his hands would have to be cut off.

Ed startled to consciousness almost thirty feet up when his body burped itself back to awareness and vomited. With the force of it he cried out the noise of someone unprepared to vomit and it echoed about him. Then he emptied his stomach and everything fell to the floor and splattered.

Roy was trying to chew his right wrist free when it sounded like someone dumped a small bucket and he looked up in time to catch Ed's first beginning movements. Ed reached his flesh arm up to the magnet and felt the hard metal surface with his vision swirling in every direction and something warm leaking down his forehead.

"Ed!" Roy yelled, stopping all movement. "Edward!"

Ed looked towards his name, and the colors of the room made a foggy picture of tiny things below him. He wasn't exactly sure where he was, or what was happening, but he was certain he seemed to be hanging off something, and Roy was talking to him.

"Get," Ed croaked, voice raspy. "Get me off this." Ed smacked his palm weakly against the magnet. His mouth tasted disgusting and he wiped at the vomit down his chin. "Get me down."

Ed's voice was small so high up, and Roy nodded in affirmation. "I am trying," he said, putting as much reassurance into his tone as he could muster. Just hearing Ed's voice crippled him with relief. Suddenly he realized how little he'd been breathing while struggling to get free and his lungs were hungrily sucking air.

Ed was continuing to move, and felt about his head before pulling his hand back when his fingers became wet. His palm came back bloody and Ed hoped his pounding headache was simply because he was hit with this magnet and nothing else. With his neck aching he looked at his arm. The automail seemed to have compacted in on itself with the magnetic pull and looked run over by a car. "Roy," Ed said uneasily. His arm seemed to be what was holding him in place, but he could feel the magnet trying to pull his leg upward and he didn't want it to succeed. If it did this to his arm, it was safe to say it might do the same to his leg, and it was one thing not to have an arm and entirely different not to have a leg.

"Ed, try and stay still," Roy said, wiggling his right wrist from side to side. The twine was giving out the slightest encouraging bit, and he planned to rip his hand out as soon as he was able.

"It's just my arm keeping me here," Ed said, nervously. Even with his vision hazy he could tell there was quite a distance below him.

"Ed, don't move," Roy said firmly. From the doorway he heard Hawkeye yell. It was her startled cry of surprise, but her bullets followed so he wasn't worried. She released almost a full clip and he heard something collapse. It was loud and the vibration came through the wall and floor. That seemed a little excessive and Roy reached back up to chew at the twine. _He wanted out now!_

Hawkeye was yelling as if she had found someone, and for a moment Roy thought she was yelling at the Homunculus before Havoc's voice joined hers. It was a relief to hear Havoc, but their tones were panicked and Roy felt like a leashed dog. _His men were all fighting and where was he!_

"What's going on?" Ed asked, sounding half asleep and scared. "Are we under attac—still under attack?"

Roy stopped chewing only to give an order. "Do not move." It was very direct, and he could hear Ed beginning a sloppy rate of breathing as if this disturbed the boy. Ed lifted his hand back up to the magnet and felt around for anything of use but it was a perfectly clean surface with the exception of some of the other scraps. Carefully he felt over a few, and they were basic metal spare parts, some flat and flush to the magnet, but others with sharp corners and twisted shapes.

Roy heard Hawkeye returning in a run and stopped trying to free himself. She came around the corner with her shirt splattered with blood tucking her gun into the back of her skirt. "Sir!" She shut and locked the door behind her, and he didn't find this reassuring. "I am so glad you're safe."

Roy smiled despite it all. "I could say the same to you." She came at him with a knife and cut his hands free. "There is a remote broken about the floor. We need to find all the pieces to it. We need to repair it." He lowered his arms slowly. They were incredibly sore and temporarily weak from the strain of pulling with everything he had.

Hawkeye looked down at the smashed bits about her feet before back to Roy. He could see the concern in her eyes. He saw her look at the cut on his neck and felt her anxiety he had been tied to a wall, but he didn't have time to address this. He dropped to his knees and began scooping the remote shards into a pile. "Where is Havoc?" he asked.

Hawkeye dropped to her knees and began helping. "Further down the hall injured. I couldn't move him, Fuery is doing it." Roy felt relieved both Havoc and Fuery were together. "I am a little uncertain with what's happening here, but I am sorry I am late sir." Hawkeye was dressed in civilian attire wearing a pink fitted dress shirt, knee high jean skirt, and boots. Partially coated in blood, which did not seem to be hers, she looked like a injured shopper or school teacher rather than a soldier. "Havoc took a blow to the head, but I think he'll be okay." Roy gave a nod and continued working. He was frantically grabbing pieces, and Hawkeye was slowing down as she studied this with a look of concern. _His urgency made no sense to her._ "Sir?" she asked, waiting to be told what was happening or what they were doing. "Sir?" Roy seemed absolutely consumed in his task. "Are you all right?" she asked, feeling true concern blossom.

"Yes, don't worry about me Lieutenant," Roy said absently, stretching to the right for a scattered button. When he returned she grabbed his hand to stop him, and he did. He lifted his gaze and hers was full of worry. Above her left eye was a streak of blood as if she'd touched herself with a bloody hand. The sight of this blood on her face made his duty feel like a thousand bricks. It was his job to protect her the same way it was for him to protect all of his men. "We need to find these pieces now." His obsession over the remote was scaring her and he could see it. "A Homunculi was here," he said, grabbing a shard of plastic and scratching the array he would need into the floor. "I have a fantastic story for you."

"Sir," Hawkeye said, sounding none too convinced. "I found Havoc and Fuery, but I've been unable to find…" As if on queue Ed broke into a stomach clenching gag and emptied his stomach again. It fell in a splatter only five feet from Hawkeye, and she startled. She yanked her gun out and aimed at the tiny puddle while scooting from it. "What is…" she whispered, before jerking the gun upward. She was aiming at Ed and the moment she realized it was him her mouth dipped open in a state of horror and she scrambled to her feet clutching a hand over it. "Oh my god," she gasped, looking quickly to Roy for explanation as much as help. He was sitting in the rubble of the remote with his one wrist bleeding and his clothing a wreck.

"This controls the magnet," he said. He didn't follow her gaze upward. He didn't want to see Ed dangling in pain when he couldn't yet get to the boy.

Hawkeye's eyes dropped to the sea of parts with new commitment, and for a moment she bent down to continue, before changing her mind and standing back up. "Ed!" she called, tucking her gun into the back rim of her skirt. "Ed, don't worry, we're going to get you down!" Roy could hear the panic of the exigency in her voice, but hoped that all Ed would notice was the fact it was shaking.

"Don't stand…under me," Ed mumbled, holding his metal shoulder with his flesh arm. "I am…throwing up." Ed sounded apologetic as much as he sounded upset, and Hawkeye's face caved with sympathy.

"Oh sir," she whispered, sounding heartbroken.

"Hawkeye, please," Roy said, closing his eyes. He had seen her expression cave like this only once before.

Three days after Ed became a state alchemist they had been packing up for the day when, from his office window, she had seen three soldiers who were not fans of little kids outranking them, shove Ed into the ground and hold him there. Roy remembered this day clearly, because Hawkeye's first response was a sighed disappointed and scolding, "_Oh." As_ if the immaturity of some soldiers had not fully sunken in for her. Then suddenly, she was fanning her hand towards him saying, "_Sir, get over here quick."_ Roy went to her side and looked out at the square beneath his office.

Ed was stomach down in the lawn with one soldier keeping him in place with a boot on his back and the other crouched in front of his face talking and holding Ed's head by his hair. When the soldier began trying to press Ed face first into a puddle of mud with Ed struggling to stay above it she asked, "_Aren't you going to do something to stop this?"_ in an accusatory tone.

The fact Roy said he was not, because soldier hazing was accepted, was a tiff they battled for the next three days. Then he broke down and assured her he would interfere if Ed was involved. She was not comfortable with the older soldiers inflicting older soldier pranks on a boy half their age, and while Roy thought sheltering Ed from this behavior would make Ed weaker, he understood not sheltering Ed from it made his right hand Lieutenant unhappy with him. Hawkeye was angry when he didn't stop what she called bullying, and when Ed was finally released she had watched the boy stagger up wiping clumps of mud from his face and spit out the alchemist watch he had just earned. "_Oh sir,"_ she had said, caving to that sympathetic face. "_They made him eat his own watch."_ She found this heart breaking, and she covered her mouth the same way she did when she looked up and saw Ed's tiny growing body hanging off a busted metal arm and attached to a magnet.

Forcing this memory away Roy raked the broken remote into a pile of rubble with shaking hands. She was helping along side of him when he sparked the array and the remote assembled incorrectly.

"We're missing pieces," Hawkeye said, looking about while keeping her hands carefully in front of her. The pads of her fingers were scratched and bleeding like his from carelessly grabbing broken fragments as fast as possible. "I don't see anymore!" Hawkeye rushed to the first workstation and dropped back to her knees. Frantically she knocked aside the scattered tools and bits of the room they had blasted apart searching for anything which looked like remote.

"All right, I am going to transmute myself something to get up there with, and get him down," Roy said, pushing to his feet overrun with adrenaline. This remote was taking too long.

"What?" Hawkeye asked, sounding startled from where she was half under a workbench. She looked back at Roy with confusion. "If he's attached to the magnet how are you going to pry him free?" Roy had not thought of this. "Can he move his arm?"

"Ed! Can you move your arm?" Roy yelled up.

It was hard to tell if Ed's eyes were open or closed, but after a brief minute of rough breathing Ed answered. "It's broken."

"Can you move it?" Roy asked, uncertain what broken arms entailed.

"I feel really, _really_, nauseous," Ed said, sounding uneasy with this confession. "I don't really want to move at all."

Roy stepped back to the half assembled remote and picked it up. Most of the pieces had been found so it appeared recognizable, but the frame was crooked, and some of the buttons were missing. Of what was there, he hesitated to press anything in case the magnet turned off.

"Sir, can you transmute something in case he falls?" Hawkeye asked, climbing up from the floor with her legs and skirt powdered with sheetrock dust and debris. "Ed!" Hawkeye called, backing away from the magnet to better see him. "Can you transmute something to attach yourself to the magnet."

"My arm is attached to it!" Ed yelled back angrily. "I can freaking…I can't freaking!" Ed kicked a bit and his body swayed. The movement sent him dry heaving and Hawkeye looked worried with this response.

"He hit his head," Roy said. "I think he's a bit disoriented."

"I am not disoriented!" Ed snapped, before puking up a small mouthful of stomach bile and emptying that toward the floor. "Get me down!"

Roy turned the remote over in his hands and looked at the back in hopes there were some type of helpful directions, but as soon as he flipped it Ed cried out.

"Ah!" Ed yelled, groaning painfully. "Turn it down! Turn it down!" the magnet was humming and Hawkeye was horrified.

"Sir!" she cried.

Roy flipped the remote back around and the buttons Envy had initially lit up were again lit with the next one flickering in and out with malfunction. "It's broken," Roy said quickly. "I think it might still be sending signals out." The flickering button lit up entirely and the second started flickering. The minute it did Ed screamed.

"Turn it off!" Ed cried, grabbing at his shoulder when it was sucked back to the magnet.

"Sir, stop it!" Hawkeye cried, rushing to Roy's side and looking at the remote. "Ed, we're not doing it!"

"Stop it! It's tearing my arm out!" Ed screamed, sounding wild with pain. Roy felt his temperature plummet. _Was that a real thing? Could the automail be ripped back out?_

"I am going to smash it!" he ran to the nearest workbench and threw the remote down. In the dust and wreckage which had scattered around on top of it he grabbed a large metal wrench and swung it into the glowing buttons. The remote was still malfunctioning when he prepared for his second swing. The current flickering button lit up green and the next began blinking in and out. With the new power to the magnet Ed's automail leg was sucked back into the metal tossing Ed's body against it and knocking the wind from him. Ed choked before struggling. With either side of his body pinned the rest of him was held painfully hanging from the metal appendages and beneath part of his lower back was a sharp metal scrap jabbing him.

"Hurry! It pulled his leg in!" Hawkeye cried, watching this with wide scared eyes.

Roy beat the remote with hammering swings so the buttons popped free and rolled away and the bulk of it became a heap of plastic and metal scraps, but this didn't improve things. The magnet was no longer turning up, but it wasn't turning off either.

Roy ran to the wall closest to the magnet and used the wrench to scratch a transmutation circle. "What are you doing?" Hawkeye asked, temporarily lost as to what to do.

"Making a ladder." Roy threw the wrench aside and sparked the ladder into life. It grew outward from the wall and lead to the ceiling. "Ed I am coming up!" he yelled, climbing quickly.

"Wait!" Hawkeye called, running to the far side of the room. Roy was several feet up and stopped to look over his shoulder impatiently. In heels she was only slightly slower than she was without them, and she struggled over the workbench Ed had destroyed and the glass all over the floor before grabbing a rolled bungee cord. "Take this with you!" She was coming back quickly and Roy extended a hand for it.

"I am going to turn it off," he said, slipping the cord over his arm.

"I know," she said, already on the same path as him. "When you do Ed will drop." She gave him her knife and he began his climb. He was quick and in seconds he was parallel to where Ed was hanging. Thirteen feet up he began to hear the soft groaning sound of metal collapsing in on itself, and by the time he was close enough to look Ed in the eye, he could see the boy's leg crunching inward slowly. He was shocked, and for a moment he stared at the leg that was slowly shrinking before looking to Ed's closed eyes. Ed's expression was tight with pain and it scared him. "Fullmetal," he said softly.

Ed opened his eyes the tiniest amount and looked at his arrival and the ladder with great need. "How is that going to help?" Ed asked, voice heavy with strain.

"I am going to get you down," he said firmly. _He was going to make this happen._ He glanced again at the leg. "Can you feel that?" he asked, hoping Ed could not, and being unable to imagine what it would feel like to have part of you compact in on itself.

"Please get me down," Ed said, forcing a weak optimistic tone. "I don't want to start crying in front of Hawkeye."

Roy reached forward and took Ed's flesh hand which was hanging limply from where Ed was pinned. He squeezed it warmly. "I am going to climb on top of it." Ed gave a weak nod. "You might feel it move, but it seems stable. We're going to secure you before we deactivate it, understand?"

Ed smiled weakly, and answered just as his ankle crumpled into a twisted metal shard. "Okay I got—ah!" Ed cried out, wincing deeply and the sneaker on the automail leg slipped off and fell down to Hawkeye. The metal ankle and foot had become nothing but a twisted shred. "I got it, I got it," Ed said, breathing deeply to combat the pain. "Yes, I got it." Ed took his flesh hand back and made a thumbs up.

"Ed, you keep it together," Roy said firmly, looking at the blood on Ed's forehead and in his hair. Ed broke out nodding and followed it with a few quick nods. "Keep it together!" Roy resumed climbing. "Talk to Hawkeye, you look at her and let me know if she gets blurry."

Hawkeye was listening intently from where she stood below. "Ed, look at me," she called up. "Hang in there."

Roy climbed high enough he could see the top of the magnet and as he suspected it hung from a center cable several feet from the ceiling with a few running wires. He reached for it and stabilized a grip before getting himself high enough he could jump on. The addition of his weight caused him to swing a bit and Ed promptly threw up. Hawkeye was kind about this, and Roy pulled himself to the center of the magnet listening to what he believed was her sweetest tone.

"It's okay Ed." She was trying to keep conversation since Ed was barely making any. "If you're sick, go ahead and puke, we don't mind."

Fuery arrived at the door and Hawkeye's sweet tone disappeared. She took out her gun and let him in. With Roy pulling wires away from the main magnet cable he listened to them discuss what was going on. Fuery was injured, but not badly. He'd bandaged Havoc and stopped the bleeding, put Havoc in a secure spot, and scouted the area briefly before risking a trip to their room. Hawkeye was pleased and asked about Havoc's wound and the creature's whereabouts but all seemed good.

"Sir, we don't think it's here anymore!" Hawkeye called up. "Permission to evacuate?" _Evacuation never sounded so sweet._

"Granted!" Roy called, singling out a blue wire and pulling it from the magnet. "I want us to leave as soon as possible!" Roy unraveled the bungee cord and fed a long piece down to Ed. "Ed, wrap this about yourself and make it tight."

"Make what tight?" Ed asked, sounding sleepy.

Hawkeye left with Fuery and locked the door behind her.

"The cord," Roy said, sitting with the magnet's main cable running up between his legs like a tree so his weight would keep the magnet steady.

"I can't grab it."

"How far away from you is it?"

"A few feet."

"If I swing it can you reach?" Roy asked, stretching forward and jostling the cable so it would swing. "Ed?" He jostled harder, careful not to grant the cord enough momentum it might whip Ed in the face. "Ed?" Ed wasn't answering. "Ed, focus with me!" Roy snapped.

"I am!" Ed cried, sounding wild. "I only have one freaking hand! I can't move! What do you want! Get it closer!" Roy moved the wire with greater force. "_Roy!_" Ed yelled angrily.

"What!" Roy snapped, with panic mounting.

"You have to get it closer! My leg is busting! I am not going to have a shoulder! Swing the fucking rope!" Roy stopped swinging the cable and sat up. Quickly he threaded more than enough cord for Ed into a pile and cut a section for himself. "What happened?" Ed called, sounding worried. Roy took the smaller piece of cord he'd severed and began tying his waist securely to the magnet's cable. "Roy? Where did you go?" It took a moment to make all the knots and then he pulled on his end firmly to test it. "Roy!" Ed called, trying to keep it together. "What's going on!" Tied securely, Roy began a slow and even belly crawl toward the edge of the magnet. "I don't believe this," Ed whined, sounding completely overloaded. "I don't freaking believe this."

Carefully Roy pulled himself to the edge and lowered himself over so his head was hanging off. Ed appeared upside down with his metal appendages tight to the magnet and the flesh pieces of him hanging down like ornaments. "Ed," Roy said kindly, feeling patient and friendly. Ed startled with the close proximity of Roy's voice and looked over. The top of Ed's forehead had dribbled some blood down his face and his right eye was squinted cautious of it. "You're doing great," Roy said sincerely. "I am going to hand you the cable." Ed reached his flesh arm forward, but even like this it was a struggle. Ed's arm was short, and with the automail locking him tight to the magnet he couldn't even wiggle. "Get it around your waist." Roy fed the cable to Ed's flesh hand and watched Ed struggle to thread it behind his back. The automail had curled awkwardly as if it had been exposed to intense heat. The individual digits had crushed into jagged blobs of steel, and Ed's ports were throbbing.

"I can't tie it," Ed muttered, bringing both ends of the cable together with his flesh hand and holding them looking defeated. "Roy," Ed said, looking over at Roy's upside down head and puff of hair. Roy looked like he had been electrocuted with his hair standing on end. Ed smiled faintly before releasing the cable and reaching to his knee. Carefully Ed grabbed a screw which was being forced out of its socket and began unscrewing it with his hand. When it released a small part of Ed's knee plate dropped down to the floor. "Can you find that for me?" Ed asked, bringing the screw to the cable. "When we get down?"

Roy wasn't going to lie. "No," he said. Ed was drawing a small transmutation circle into the cable with the screw as a pen, and Roy's answer brought another pained smile.

"I am going to charge the military to replace it." Ed bonded the cable with alchemy and then dropped the screw to the floor as well. "Okay I am ready." Ed shared a quick glance with Roy before closing his eyes and letting his head hang because holding it up was exhausting.

"Just sit tight," Roy said, climbing back up. Hawkeye returned when he was just reaching the cable again. She informed them they had the car and everyone was in it and waiting. Roy slipped the knife into the magnet's cable and prepared to cut the blue wire. "Ed, you've got some slack up here, so you'll fall a few feet, but not far."

"You're going to catch me, right?"

"I'll think on it." Roy pressed the blade to the wire and cut. The magnet shut off, Ed dropped, and Hawkeye screamed. As predicted the cable became taunt and Roy began hauling it up. It took nearly two minutes before Ed became visible as just the top of a blonde head. "Grab the magnet," Roy said, voice straining. Ed's single flesh hand came up and slapped the clean metal surface, but that was all Ed could do.

"Pull me up," Ed whimpered.

Roy struggled, Ed felt like a stone locking down his fishing line, and with the cable about Ed's torso the rest of Ed was literally in the way. Roy pulled slowly, careful not to put too much force on Ed's middle. With the angle, if the cord wasn't going to pull Edward up, it would just squeeze the boy harshly. "Ed, can you get yourself any higher?" This wasn't easy without Ed's participation. Ed didn't answer. "Ed, can you try?" Roy anchored as much of himself and the cord he held to the magnet before reaching forward for Ed's hand. "Take my hand," he said, fingers outstretched. Ed lifted his head and peeked over the top of the magnet. "Take it." Ed reached. "Make this work Fullmetal," Roy said adapting his colonel tone. "Get it together, and take my hand." He stretched as far as he could. "_That's an order._" Ed was struggling before this statement, but with it, Roy could feel Ed wiggling and trying to get his body up high enough their fingers could interlock. Ed's movement was not enough to jostle the magnet but Roy could feel slight vibrations when Ed gave a kick with his flesh leg and pushed himself high enough they connected. "Good," Roy said, dragging Ed up the side of the magnet by his arm. "Are you okay?" He pulled Ed forward gracelessly and it was like dragging a corpse. Ed's body was shaking and disoriented from the fall. The automail was twisted, and part of it was scraping at the top of the magnet with the movement. With exhaustion in his arm Roy pulled Ed to him and let Ed topple onto part of his leg and hip before wrapping his arm about the boy and squeezing. "Are you all right?"

"I threw up," Ed confessed, sounding ill. Roy chuckled. He held Ed as tight as he thought he could. "Some hit Hawkeye I think." Ed seemed to be breathing correctly, and he was making full sentences. _What a relief. _"Ah, everything hurts."

Roy disengaged enough to look down with a smile. "Can you see straight?" Ed nodded sloppily. "Can you move your arm?"

"No."

"Leg?"

"No." There was blood about Ed's forehead and in his hair. "It feels hot all inside my thigh, I think it's entirely crushed." Ed's leg looked as if it had been fed into a trash compactor. "And I can see but…lights seem bright, and sometimes thing get blurry."

"I think you're going into shock." Ed was trembling constantly, and Roy didn't share this.

"You'd think it'd numb the pain," Ed said, cracking a weak smile. "What a bust."

"Can you hang on to me?" He began untying himself from the magnet. Ed gave a weak nod, wiping at his mouth and accidentally smearing blood onto his chin. "You're going to get on my back and we're going down the ladder," he said, scooting forward. Ed was not opposed, and climbed on as much as a person with one arm and one leg could. This was barely anything in comparison to the weight of Ed's broken metal appendages, and Roy grabbed the flesh arm Ed wrapped over his shoulder and hung on tight as he neared the edge of the magnet.

"Don't drop us," Ed said, becoming nervous with the space between the magnet and the wall. "Roy? Don't drop us." Roy was stretching forward over the edge and reaching for the ladder's rungs with Ed breathing heavily. With his fingers in aim he tipped their weight forward and caught the ladder rung with Ed squeezing the life out of him with a single arm. Moving the rest of them onto the ladder was difficult, but with his grip he was certain they wouldn't go down entirely.

"Holy crap," Ed rasped, still shaking when Roy managed to move them entirely onto the ladder at a height that was more than intimidating. "Don't drop us. Don't drop us."

"Stop looking down," Roy said, focusing on his grip. He moved one limb at a time, but even this minor movement caused Ed's flesh leg to continuously slip lower. "Ed, you're loosing your grip." Ed's hand tightened at once. "With your leg." Each step down caused it to slip that little bit more. "Don't panic when you loose it."

Ed's leg slid off almost on queue and Ed did panic. "Shit!" Ed cried, pressing his face into Roy's shoulder blade. "Let's transmute something! I want to transmute something!"

"Sir!" Hawkeye called up from the floor. "Are you all right!"

"Fine!" Roy called, continuing steadily. "We're not transmuting anything, we're two humans climbing down a ladder and humans have done this for centuries," Roy said firmly. He didn't know what he could transmute to get them up and down safely without destroying anymore of the room. He wanted Ed moved as little as possible and with the boy on his back, he would be able to descend and then walk them both to the car without ever putting Ed down.

"I can't hang on!" Ed yelled into Roy's back. "I am slipping!"

"You're not going to fall, I am reinforcing your arm."

"I am going to be sick," Ed cried, sounding overwhelmed.

"Ed, shut your eyes and let me do the work on this one," Roy said angrily. "Now focus."

"I am going to puke."

Roy felt Ed's grip loosen a bit and he panicked. _He couldn't support Ed without some of Ed's help!_ Quickly he looked down, but there was still twenty feet to go. At the base of the ladder Hawkeye was staring up and holding either side of it as if to steady them. He met her eyes for only a moment, but immediately she looked to Ed with concern.

"Ed!" Hawkeye called up. "I am going to call Alphonse. Would he be home now!" _Goodness she was quick_.

"My…" Ed muttered, lifting back to consciousness. Roy felt Ed's grip tighten back up and he did his best to hurry. "…the…area code," Ed muttered, before swallowing. For a moment Ed was simply breathing, before fighting his way back to coherency. "I thought you said I couldn't call him!" Ed was mad. "Because of the area code!"

"The colonel is going to authorize it."

"All because of a little head injury and crushed automail!" Ed dropped his forehead back into Roy's shoulder to rest. Roy found it humorous Ed was aware he had a head injury.

"Ed, you're almost at the bottom," Hawkeye said, sounding compassionate. _Roy couldn't wait to reach her._ "When you're in reach I am going to grab your hips." Roy kept descending and within a few rungs he felt Hawkeye's grip slide about Ed's hips and steady the boy. "Are you bleeding anywhere Ed? Are you all right?" _She was doing the list, even now._

"I don't think so," Ed rasped. "But I might be. Some of me I can't feel well."

Roy dropped to his feet with a heavy sigh and stood for a moment to rest. His limbs felt watery from the strain of the magnet and the stress which came from descending thirty foot ladders with adolescences riding you.

"Ed, everything is going to be all right," Hawkeye said softly, before appropriately firming her tone to address Roy. "Sir, let me keep him steady and you can slowly turn around." She didn't want Ed on his back and Roy was coming to that conclusion too. He gave a nod, and with Ed's palm gripping the top of his shoulder, Roy slowly turned to face Ed while she kept the bulk of his weight in one place.

Ed was wincing when they came together, and Roy shifted the boy up to his shoulder trying to keep his arms away from the metal. "This is…" Ed rasped, hissing painfully as Roy managed a delicate hold of him. "Undignified."

"Hawkeye won't tell," Roy said, following her quickly to the door. She lead them quickly through the hall with her gun raised and ready, and they had driven the SUV right onto the schools' walkway and to the main doors. All she had to do was open the main entrance and there was the idling car with the back passenger side open.

Fuery was inside bandaging Havoc's head with the man unconscious. With their arrival he came to them immediately. "Take him from me," Roy said, transferring Ed forward.

Fuery wrapped his arms about Ed's chest and took Ed's weight into the car. "Is he unconscious!" Fuery called, sounding panicked.

Roy climbed in quickly. The back of the car was a mess of medical supplies and he slapped them off the back seat with Ed managing his pain with closed eyes and deep Tai Chi breaths. Hawkeye was in the driver's seat and pulling away before Roy even had the back door closed.

"Grab Fullmetal's bag, and give him to me," Roy ordered, extending his arms. Fuery handed Ed over, and Roy took him like a bride trying to cradle Ed's twisted arm. "Ed." Roy leaned into Ed's line of sight, and Ed cracked an eye. Hawkeye was driving at an outrageous speed and she flew around the side of the market and slid them all to the left.

Ed cursed with the movement, and the jerk of the car coming to a stop. Immediately Hawkeye was out of the car, and Fuery followed her.

"Grab some water!" Roy called after them. That was all he felt he needed to add because they knew what to get and what was needed. "Ed." Roy turned his eyes back down to Ed's bloody face. "It is just Havoc and myself in the car." This was as private as it was going to get. "Are you in a lot of pain?" He stroked his hand down Ed's thigh until it became metal and felt for any damage.

"I'll manage," Ed whispered, flinching with the exam. "Try not to move the automail."

"We're going to take it off you." Roy was feeling all about the bottom of Ed's thigh, but it seemed unharmed outside of how it suddenly turned into twisted bits of steel. "It is painful to have taken off?"

"If you do it right, it's not, but I don't think it's going to come off easy like this." Ed licked his lips with Roy feeling down his shoulder and chest. "If it won't come free, just give me something to bite down on when you pull."

Fuery returned and climbed into the back like an explosion. He tossed a bag forward into Havoc's unconscious lap, and was immediately reorganizing the medical supplies.

Hawkeye returned to the front and glanced back once to make sure everyone was still in the car before looking to Roy. There eyes met for just a moment and then her foot hit the gas petal and she took off.

"Hawkeye!" Ed yelled, when the quick reverse bent Roy forward even as he tried to brace himself. "You're driving like a maniac!"

Hawkeye ignored this and Fuery was up and reached over Roy to drag Ed's bag out of the back. "Ed, you want any water?" Fuery asked, dropping it along side Roy on the back seat.

"I need some pain meds. Can I get morphine?"

"I don't want to give him anything until we've reached a hospital," Roy said to Fuery, watching the man rip open a pouch of bandages.

"Sir, we should give him something," Fuery said, sitting the open pouch on Ed's stomach before dragging the black vinyl bag of mechanical supplies from Ed's bag. "If not medical, then at least some Scotch."

"Stop talking about me like I am not here," Ed snapped, breathing roughly with his pain. "The hospital is going to give it to me anyway. They always do. They knock me out for this shit." Ed lifted his hand and smacked Roy's chest playfully. "Stingy Colonel." Roy looked at Ed's forced smile, it was full of pain, but strong. "Haven't you ever been shot before?" _What a question._

"Ed, listen," Fuery said, dragging Ed's fat automail manual out of Ed's bag and placing that on Ed's stomach as well. "How much of this can you talk me through." Ed chuckled bitterly, and tipped his head back. The automail was hanging off Ed's flesh body like sharp broken car parts. _Could you talk a doctor through digging a bullet out?_

"With or without the pain killers?" Ed asked, using a cold angry tone.

"Half," Roy said quickly. "Give him half."

Fuery was flipping pages in Ed's manual. While scanning the book he wiggled his hand into the open bag of supplies and grabbed one of their individual morphine doses. Ed reached for it at once.

"Give it to me, I know how," Ed said firmly. "I want it in my ports."

"Half Ed," Roy said firmly, when Fuery handed it over. Ed brought the single plastic tube to his mouth and ripped the top off with his teeth before aiming at his cloth covered shoulder.

"Get my shirt out of the way," Ed said, nodding quickly toward the cotton. "Hurry up!"

Fuery was sitting on his legs before them, and immediately raised to a kneel and ripped a Bayonet knife out of his boot. "Do you have extra clothes in your emergency bag Ed?" Fuery asked, slipping the blade into Ed's shirt and ripping it up at an intimidating rate. Ed kept perfectly still and looked wearily to Fuery who ripped Ed's tee shirt off in easily manageable shreds.

"That's why they…call it an emergency bag," Ed muttered, before tossing his hand forward in a block when Fuery slipped the knife into the pant hole of Ed's gym shorts and went to yank it up. "Are you serious!" Ed squeaked, closing his eyes with panic. "Get that knife out of there!"

Roy intervened and nodded toward Ed's bag. "Fuery." Roy pushed the knife away. "Grab him something else to wear." He looped his thumb into the rim of Ed's shorts and pulled them down Ed's right hip. "We'll get you undressed," he said softly. Sliding his fingers to Ed's left hip and doing the same. Holding Ed upright, he only had one hand as well. "Try to endure it."

Ed opened his eyes and looked more at ease without Fuery's knife before glancing bashfully toward Hawkeye. Roy had to smile. "You know we've come a long way Fullmetal," he said pulling Ed's shorts to his knees and revealing the boxers underneath. "And yet there are still surprises." He laughed softly, adjusting Ed's shorts off his bandaged knee before pulling Ed's boxers up above the start of the automail. Now the obstacles which had been in place between them just two weeks ago seemed silly. _Did they really waste so much of their energy with all that?_

"Don't get too sappy on me colonel," Ed teased, voice raspy as if with a cold. "I am not bleeding out or anything." Ed plunged the morphine into his shoulder with a deep sigh of relief before regarding Fuery with a nervous eye. Fuery had not put his knife away and was using it as a tentative bookmark in the automail manual while flipping pages wildly. ""You know…I had…heard rumors you were…good with a knife," Ed said, brining the morphine administrator to his thigh and pricking it very close to the metal port.

"Yeah?" Fuery asked, sounding pleasantly surprised.

"Focus," Roy snapped. "What part of the manual do we need to look at Ed?" Roy asked, looking at the open pages in front of him. They were filled with small text and tiny mechanic diagrams.

"I've never looked at it," Ed said softly.

"Fuery, put the knife away," Roy snapped. To have it open, and so near his stomach in a moving car made him nervous. Fuery slipped the knife back into his boot and grabbed the wrench which was inside the vinyl sack with Ed's automail manual. "Ed, recommend a section," Roy ordered, pulling his eyes from the manual and looking at Ed's relaxed expression.

"Well…" Ed managed, voice faint. "I feel…so….so much…better."

Roy looked at the empty morphine injection in Ed's thigh. "Dammit Ed, what did I say?" Roy snapped.

"Remember what I said about…" Ed whispered. "…possibly not listening to…your commands on…"

"Shut up," Roy ordered, yanking the tiny needle out of Ed's thigh and giving Fuery a cold look. He worried about the pain killers allowing them to do things they shouldn't. That with Ed too drugged, pulling, or twisting, or unscrewing certain things which they should not touch would go unregistered until the drugs wore off. "This is why you are to deliver it only," Roy said, annoyed he let Ed get his way yet again. _What a push over colonel he was._

"Sir, if they're really going to give it to him at the hospital it can't really hurt," Fuery said, trying to stay optimistic.

"They're not going to," Roy said angrily. "Fullmetal is a manipulative liar when he wants to be."

Fuery looked to Ed for confirmation and Ed gave a sleepy nod. Kneeling in front of Ed's half dressed form holding a wrench like a scalpel and the manual like it was a Bible, Fuery did not look impressed. "Sir, maybe you should do this," Fuery said, sounding uneasy. Roy thought that he could do it, he felt capable of unscrewing Ed's limbs if that was what it had come to, but he didn't want to. When he considered the situation, unscrewing things would be the easy part, holding Ed would not be, and he wanted to be the one to do it. "I've never really done anything like this, sir."

Roy looked at the large wrench in Fuery's hand. Ed's mechanic was skilled. She had made an intricate piece of machinery, and remembered the convenience of real life, and the changing facets of the military. _The automail could come on and off with one wrench: genius._ Along side the extra clothes and toothbrush Ed had brought, his emergency bag held a manual and single wrench. The tools to the automail, all that was needed.

"In fact, the men don't even let me change the oil in the transport." Fuery said, sounding worried.

Ed might have been medicated, but with this news he lifted his head a bit and looked at Fuery with a bit of disbelief.

"I am going to hold him steady, all you need to do is unfasten the bolts," Roy said trying to stay optimistic. _If one adolescent girl could do it, so could they. _"Hawkeye?"

"Sir?"

"Keep us steady." She must have been doing at least eighty. "And if there is anything coming to disrupt the drive, warn us."

Roy slipped his hand beneath Ed's flesh thigh and its temperature suggested a wound. Carefully he lifted it a few inches and the hunk of metal which was once an impressive leg came with nothing other than a small clanking shift to the side. With the impact and strength of the magnet several of the bolts they were looking for were already pressing from their holds and Fuery lowered the wrench to one with a nervous hand. Roy had assumed removing the twisted metal would bring relief, and his very first thought upon seeing it damaged was to have it removed, now he also realized removing it might bring pain.

"Fuery," Ed said, stopping the man. Fuery looked at Ed's exhausted expression, and Ed forced a smile. "Righty Tighty Lefty Loosey."

Fuery smiled in return and wiped at the sweat growing across his brow. "Just…tell me if I am doing this wrong so I don't injure you further, okay Ed?"

"There's really no wrong way to do it," Ed said, closing his eyes and bracing himself. "Unless you're an idiot." Ed lifted his hand and tightly gripped the front of Roy's shirt. With the morphine Ed held on tight and Fuery worked diligently for the next hour.

When all was said in done Roy found himself lying across the backseat of the car with nothing but Ed's weight on his chest. Ed was dead asleep, curled up at Roy's side with his torso sleeping on Roy's to keep the arm port elevated, and Fuery's jacket rolled under his leg port to keep that upward as well. In his sleep, Ed held tight to Roy's shirt.

"We're an awfully sorry bunch, aren't we," Roy said softly. Havoc had remained unconscious since the trip and Fuery had moved the parallel chair and was sleeping with his legs propped up on Havoc's unharmed knees. The only one awake was Hawkeye, and with Roy's question, she glanced into the rear view mirror and looked back at him.

"Sir?" In the mirror the great Flame Alchemist was stretched across the backseat looking exhausted and much in need of a stiff drink and shower. Ed was only partially visible as a sleeping head of blond hair and tiny gripping hand.

"A bunch of fools to fall prey to basic alchemy and then…come stumbling back like this." Roy laughed to himself. He lifted his hand and rubbed at his temples before resting his arm over Ed to hold the boy. Beneath his finger he could feel the steady rhythm of Ed's heart, and it made him smile. Ed's ports were bandaged as if they were flesh wounds because it made them all feel as if they had done something when really there was nothing that could be done. Ed looked puzzled when Fuery began doing so but didn't protest. The only thing Ed requested was new pants, after loudly whispering in a medicated daze that he didn't want Hawkeye to see him in his underwear. Roy knew she must have heard this, and he also knew she would pretend, perhaps to her grave, that she didn't, because she was kind at heart.

"We may not have accomplished everything we had illustrated Colonel, but might I say, we accomplished some unplanned goals which," Roy saw her eyes move to Ed's sleeping face, "which are equally as important." She had the strength to sit up and drive when they did not, and she gave him enough peace he felt he could rest with her awake. "What we indirectly accomplished might even be more important than what we planned to." She sounded humored with this idea, and Roy looked down at Ed when Ed shifted the tiniest bit.

Ed said his ports were itchy, and this made no sense. After the detachment they put Ed's broken appendages in the back, and Ed was ready for sleep. "Roy?" Ed muttered, abandoning the grip he had on Roy's shirt and sliding it to Roy's collar before taking hold. Roy was silent, and waited for the rest of Ed's question before realizing Ed was still asleep.

This made him smile with a satisfaction that until this night he did not know he desired, and did not know could satisfy him. _His name had come first._ His name had come before Alphonse's tonight. _He had filled a social void._ He had proved he was something, and shown he was important. Silently Roy brought his fist up and back for a personal score. Where he thought he might fail, he succeeded. When before he thought he paid enough attention, and held his own enough with the boy he had found he hadn't. When they started this mission they were two entities working toward the same goal, and Ed was isolated, and he was burdened. Now they held two different goals as part of the same entity, and Roy felt a respect and commitment that was newly founded but enjoyed.

Inside his mind he stood confidently before his lobby chair, and at his side, Ed did the same before his own.

"Sir?" Hawkeye said, looking at him through the rear view mirror. "You're smiling sir." She sounded perplexed, but with her words, Roy let it grow.

"Goodnight Hawkeye." He closed his eyes and slid his arm more securely about Ed's chest to keep Ed warm. "It's been a long day." He yawned heavily. He felt at peace and filled with a pride and calm excitement he didn't truly understand. "Wake me up when we get there."

Tomorrow was in fact another day, and of course to save them all from their own gullibility, there was lots of bullshitting to be done. All in all case closed, it was just another run of events and luck just happened to smile on them, even if it was in a very ironic and twisted way.

* * *

Well everyone…that was the end. I really hope you enjoyed it, and to anyone who read the original 2008 version, I hope this one appeared much improved. I am sad, even though it's in a good way, to have this story end. Now it will be buried in pages upon pages of FMA stories, and hardly anyone will find it. :(

To those of you who read, I am honored for your presence: _thank you._ Here is my upcoming activity for the next few months. My goal is to write for my own pleasure and your own entertainment, and to show you what I imagine exactly as I imagine it and to emotionally move you with the same precision._  
_11/17/12 – FMA: One shot: _Office Conduct  
_11/30/12 – FMA: One shot: _Hazing  
_12/14/12 – OHSHC: One shot: _Smoking Is For Poor People  
_12/24/12 – FMA: One shot_: Christmas_

Then!-To kick off the New Year, I will release my baby: _The Silent Heart_. It will show you the intimate world of Hohenheim's Germany, how obscurely a person's love can translate into their actions, and what life can be like for Ed living as a handicapped individual just shy of the year 1915. _Another Run of Events_, the story you've now completed was 223 pages…_The Silent Heart_ is 347. I promise it won't feel like a long read, it took every word, and every page to build for you the place I want to take you.

1/1/2013 – FMA: Multi-Chapter Story: _The Silent Heart, _Chapter 1: _Memory of the Enamored. _I hope that many of you will stop by and visit.

...Now...

*****Please leave a review***** _(you have read all the other chapters...and may not have reviewed them...but you can still change this!)._ If you have Followed/Favorited this story...or read all the way to the end...please take one moment to leave evidence you were here. Stories are not easy to write.

We're trading, you and I. I've given you this story...see if you can give me one word of response to it. : )Your valued comments can be placed in the box below. THANK YOU again for your time. I hope to see you in the future, as I will continue to post new work. [Please check out my profile if you're interested, I'd love to have you.]

Best,  
mirage


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